Add your name to the sign-on letter

About 4,500 families with disabled parents and children could lose all their state cash assistance under a proposal by the Governor. With deep budget challenges facing the state, the Legislature may be tempted to go along. That would leave most of these families living on less than $700 a month of federal disability income – and most of them would be headed by parents the federal government has determined are too disabled to work. These are parents with serious mental illness, with low IQs, with chronic and incapacitating illness trying to raise children with poverty level income, who would now be pushed into deep poverty.

Congress could help. Some members of Congress are pressing this week to get an extension of emergency welfare-to-work funds included in the bill that extends unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits for the unemployed. This could mean $80 million for Minnesota and the money comes with incentives that would make it much more difficult to make these or other cuts to families on the state’s welfare-to-work program, the Minnesota Family Investment Program.

If you live in districts represented by Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Betty McCollum, Rep. James Oberstar, Rep. Collin Peterson or Rep. Tim Walz, please consider adding your name to these letters. (If you are not sure who represents you in Congress, a map at this site will help you figure it out: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=MN).

We want individuals’ names. In your organization or your congregation, you and your colleagues may live in a number of different districts.

We need to hear from you right away. We need your commitment by NOON on WEDNESDAY, March 17th. Send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your name, the community you live in and the name of your representative.

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March 17, 2010

Dear Rep. ,

We hope you will urge leadership in the House of Representatives to include a one-year extension and expansion of the Emergency TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) Fund in the jobs bill that will extend UI and COBRA. It is important the Fund be extended now so that the state does not begin to dismantle programs that we desperately need.

We the undersigned are members or allies of the Affirmative Options Coalition. The weak state of our safety net has become all too visible during this recession and we are seeing record numbers of men, women and children in homeless shelters and food shelves. They are being battered by the weak economy and the state’s on-going budget shortfalls.

The TANF emergency funds are a fitting complement to other jobs bills: • Minnesota has used a portion of those funds to create short-term skill building jobs with private sector employers, non-profits and local governments around the state. [Will include some regional examples from each district.] • Data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows that more than half of the parents who enroll on our state’s welfare-to-work program have recently been in Minnesota’s labor force. They work primarily in the retail, hotel/restaurant, temporary agencies and health care sectors. They are among the half of unemployed Minnesotans who do not collect unemployment insurance – and therefore are not helped when those benefits are extended.

The extension of the TANF emergency funds could mean more than $80 million for very low income children and their families in Minnesota. In addition to job creation through subsidized wages, Minnesota has used the funds to cover the costs of small caseload increases seen during the recession, to fend off cuts in assistance to these families, and to increase funding for short-term emergency help to keep families from losing housing and to help homeless families get quickly back into housing. Because Minnesota can only earn these funds as an 80% reimbursement on investments the state is making, the emergency TANF funds become an important tool in helping protect the most vulnerable children in the state. Budget proposals from the state administration include proposals to end welfare-to-work and child care assistance to families with disabled parents or children. Those cuts would be much more difficult to make if the emergency TANF funds are available to Minnesota.

We would appreciate your work in delivering a message to House leadership. Please let us know if this is an effort you can support. You may communicate that and request any additional information through Deborah Schlick, Affirmative Options Coalition, 651-292-1568 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you,

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