Stop TANF-funded Marriage Programs
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) (also known as welfare or public assistance) is an important part of our social contract to help parents and children in poverty. Congress must vote on whether to continue TANF every five years. TANF is due to be reauthorized in 2010.
When President Clinton "ended welfare as we knew it," he allowed Congress to state that the purposes of TANF include promoting marriage and two-parent families, and reducing births to unmarried parents. Then the Bush Administration used TANF funds to give $150 million per year to hundreds of marriage programs around the country.
| Learn more about government-funded marriage programs. |
Those programs are fighting hard to keep their grants flowing. We must fight just as hard to put that money back into programs that are proven to ease the pain of poverty and help families leave poverty behind, regardless of their marital status.
The text in the shaded box below, plus the signatures and comments, will be delivered to federal officials during the TANF reauthorization process.
Please sign, share your experiences, and tell your friends!
Congress should state that the purpose of TANF is to end poverty, not to promote marriage. Congress should not reauthorize the Healthy Marriage Initiatives.
| Number | Date | Name | Location | If you have personal ... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 242 | Sat Nov 03 08:22:48 EDT 2012 | Wendy Chrisman | Columbus, OH | |
| 241 | Tue Oct 23 02:32:00 EDT 2012 | Christi Harper | Chandler, OK | I turned my exhusband in to Child Support Enforcement for failure to pay in 2007. It wasn't until two years later in 2009 that they finally suspended his drivers license! He was 2 years, a consecutive More.... |
| 240 | Sun Apr 17 20:53:56 EDT 2011 | Anonymous | they shouldn't give the money to marriage programs, they should give it to the recipient to help pay for a wedding. If marriage really helps reduce poverty! | |
| 239 | Wed Mar 23 12:41:01 EDT 2011 | Carole Alexander | Baltimore, MD | n my long experience leading a domestic violence center, it is clear that marriage promotion programs are yet another institutional tool to control vulnerable women and children that leads to further violence More.... |
| 238 | Sun Nov 28 02:23:00 EST 2010 | Angi Becker | MI | |
| 237 | Sun Nov 21 04:50:12 EST 2010 | Anonymous | Marriage is a religious custom and should be neither supported, promoted, nor repressed by the State. It also has *nothing* to do with poverty, so it should not be part of TANF! | |
| 236 | Tue Oct 05 14:30:31 EDT 2010 | Anonymous | WV | |
| 235 | Fri Oct 01 17:59:16 EDT 2010 | Anonymous | CA | |
| 234 | Thu Sep 09 14:03:21 EDT 2010 | Valerie Lambert | Dayton, oh | |
| 233 | Thu Jul 22 16:26:28 EDT 2010 | Anonymous | CA | |
| 232 | Sun Jun 20 17:23:50 EDT 2010 | Rosa Friedman | Bryn Mawr, PA | |
| 231 | Wed Jun 09 18:55:17 EDT 2010 | Anonymous | New Bedford , MA | |
| 230 | Sun Apr 25 07:00:10 EDT 2010 | Elizabeth Mei Wong | Knoxville, TN | |
| 229 | Fri Apr 16 08:17:51 EDT 2010 | Monica Pignotti | Tallahassee, FL | |
| 228 | Tue Apr 06 00:49:50 EDT 2010 | Elisa Pelaccia | Windsor, ON | |
| 227 | Mon Apr 05 18:50:10 EDT 2010 | Seema Desai | Minneapolis, MN | No personal TANF experience, but TANF's role is to provide a safety net, not to promote the institution of marriage. In a time when funding is limited, such resources should not be wasted on morality/normalcy More.... |
| 226 | Mon Apr 05 18:26:58 EDT 2010 | Desiree Hickson | Colorado Springs, CO | |
| 225 | Mon Apr 05 18:22:02 EDT 2010 | Anonymous | ||
| 224 | Thu Mar 04 10:19:42 EST 2010 | Vanessa Brocato | Brooklyn, NY | |
| 223 | Tue Mar 02 12:55:46 EST 2010 | Anonymous | ||
| 222 | Tue Mar 02 11:57:28 EST 2010 | Myra Batchelder | Brooklyn, NY | |
| 221 | Tue Feb 23 10:24:08 EST 2010 | Anonymous | ||
| 220 | Mon Feb 22 22:55:07 EST 2010 | Sandra Cunha | New Bedford , MA | |
| 219 | Sat Feb 20 01:00:19 EST 2010 | Bobby Mauger | Corvallis, OR | Never had TANF myself, and hope to not need it, but as a happily unmarried person I cannot think of any reason either of our benefits should be tied to whether we ever marry. |
| 218 | Thu Feb 18 16:57:44 EST 2010 | Kori Amos | MO |