The TANF Contingency Fund

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Contingency Fund was created to provide temporary supplemental funding to states during economic downturns. This issue brief examines how the Fund’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) caseload benchmark and maintenance-of-effort requirement result in routine eligibility, with most states qualifying regardless of current economic distress and funding concentrated among a small number of states.