Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA); Interpretation of “Federal Means-Tested Public Benefit” (August 21, 1997) [pdf]

This notice with comment period interprets the term “Federal means-tested public benefit[s]” as used in title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Pub. L. 104-193, to include only mandatory spending programs of the Federal Government in which eligibility for the programs’ benefits, or the amount of such benefits, or both, are determined on the basis of income or resources of the eligibility unit seeking the benefit. At HHS, the benefit program programs that fall within this definition (and are not explicitly excepted from the definition by Section 403(c)) are Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).