Your support has helped defeat Del. John O’Bannon’s horrible HB2213, which would halve the maximum number of consecutive months most people can receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), going from 24 months to 12. Late Thursday the full House recommended “Laying the Bill on the Table,” effectively killing it for this session.
This is the bill that Virginia Interfaith Center President Frank McKinney called “mean spirited” during public comments in the committee hearing room. “It’s not mean spirited at all,” O’Bannon responded defensively. “The goal here is to get people out of poverty.”
Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration was also strongly against the bill, saying it would hurt children.
The change would have made Virginia’s TANF system “one of the most restrictive in the entire country,” according to Jill Hanken at the Virginia Poverty Law Center.