TANF is Still a Lifeline
TANF is the District’s only cash-based assistance program. It serves as a vital lifeline for families with little or no income, helping to pay for rent, utilities, diapers, clothes, transportation, and other essentials. Having available cash provides power, flexibility, and greater stability, especially during uncertain economic times.
Over the past two years, Mayor Bowser has proposed significant cuts to TANF.
Both the proposed FY2026 and FY2027 budget had three cuts to TANF:
- Ending cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for TANF benefits;
- Reinstituting time limits for families receiving TANF for 60 months or more; and
- Increasing sanctions for not meeting work readiness requirement.
In FY2026, the Council was able to stave off full cuts. At the end of the FY2027 budget season, the DC Council was able to re-fund 2 out of 3 proposed cuts:
- Reinstituting time limits for families receiving TANF for 60 months or more; and
- Increasing sanctions for not meeting work readiness requirement.
Unfortunately, the Council was not able to find money for the COLA — meaning benefits will not increase, despite increasing costs and inflation. While this is disappointing, we are glad to see so much of TANF preserved for FY2027.
The advocacy will need to continue. Since the funding is only for one year, the same cuts will be on the table again in FY2028. Importantly, the Budget Support Act (BSA) includes a provision that will eliminate TANF benefits paid through local funds after an individual is on TANF for 60 months. While the Executive had originally proposed a step down, meaning no family would ever be fully cut off from TANF, this BSA language changes that and families on TANF for 5 years (60 months) will lose access to this benefit.
Action is needed to reverse these harmful policies and protect DC children and families from being driven further into poverty. In FY2028, the District needs to establish recurring funding to reverse the FY27 & FY28 funding and policy decisions that reduce access to critical cash supports during a time of significant change across other benefit programs.
Resources
FY27 Budget One-Pagers:
- What is TANF and What Changes are Happening in DC?
- TANF Cuts Will Cause Lasting Harm to Children
- TANF is Critical in the Face of Federal Safety Net Cuts
- TANF is a Lifeline for Parents in Low-Wage Jobs and Those Facing Job Barriers
- A TANF Inflation Adjustment is Needed to Help Families with Children Keep Up with Rising Costs
Policy Brief: Eliminating TANF’s COLA Will Harm the District’s Most Vulnerable Families (DC Fiscal Policy Institute, May 2026)
Working Group Response Report: The TANF Reductions in FY27 and FY28 Are Not Informed, Do Not Account for Current Realities in the District, and Will Ultimately Harm Thousands of Children (April 2026)
Focus Group Report: Punitive TANF Policies Will Push DC Families with Children Deeper Into Hardship (DC Fiscal Policy Institute, April 2026)
Article: Mayor’s budget proposes even harsher cuts to TANF than those going into effect this October (Street Sense Media, April 2026)
Op-Ed: DC Must Restore TANF to Pull Children Out of Poverty (The 51st, February 2026)
Presentation: Recent TANF Cuts will Throw More DC Children into Poverty (February 2026)
Letter: Sign-On Letter from over 100 Organizations, Local Elected Officials, and Community Advocates (January 2026)
Policy Paper: TANF is a Lifeline for DC Families with Children (United Planning Organization, November 2025)
Report from 2016 TANF Working Group: Recommendations for Development of a TANF Hardship Extension Policy for Washington, DC
The TANF is Still a Lifeline Coalition
The TANF is Still a Lifeline Coalition works to support families with children by fighting to preserve and bolster DC’s TANF program. TANF is a cash assistance program that helps families pay for rent and utilities, clothes, school supplies and other essentials for parents in poverty-wage and unstable jobs, when the economy is weak and jobs are scarce, and when parents face barriers to working consistently.
A decade ago, community members and advocates worked to stop harmful time limits on cash assistance that would have increased child poverty without improving employment outcomes and helped usher in a range of family-supporting reforms. Now, we are working to reverse policies adopted in 2025 – renewed time limits, loss of annual inflation adjustments to benefits, and increased penalties on families failing to meet program rules – that threaten to push 15,000 children deeper into poverty. If these cuts are implemented, it will increase family homelessness, child hunger, and school absenteeism, among other harms, for thousands of Black and brown children.
If you are interested in joining the TANF is Still a Lifeline Coalition, contact Leah Castelaz at LCastelaz@childrenslawcenter.org and Maria Manansala at mmanansala@dcfpi.org.