The Importance of Due Process Protections after Welfare Reform: Client Stories from New York City

I. INTRODUCTION The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (1) threatens the due process protections that, for over thirty years, have applied to public assistance programs throughout the country. This article will demonstrate, through an exploration of New York City's administration of its cash assistance programs and the consequence on impoverished City residents (2) that any diminution of due process protections in the public assistance arena would result in unnecessary harm to those that these programs are intended to help. The federal welfare reform law fundamentally changed the nature of the foremost federal program by providing impoverished families with cash assistance (3) to meet their most basic needs. The federal welfare reform law transformed the federally funded, state-administered program from a highly federally regulated program to a block grant program with few constraints on the state. (4) This fundamental change was epitomized by the alteration in the name of the program from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This transformation occurred after years of debate about the benefits and harms of public assistance, (5) a promise to `end welfare as we know it,' (6) and two presidential vetoes of earlier versions of the legislation. (7) While the welfare reform law brought sweeping changes to the structure of the federal public assistance program, one new feature not frequently discussed in popular accounts, but with potentially profound consequences on the daily administration of the program, is the section of the law that provides that public assistance is longer an entitlement. (8) Decades before the welfare reform law, the Supreme Court in Goldberg v. Kelly (9) recognized that public assistance recipients were entitled to certain due process rights. (10) Since then, public assistance programs throughout the country have been administered under a due process regime. The fact that the welfare reform law's provision states that the TANF program does not entitle any person to assistance (11) threatens the entire structure of due process protections that have applied to the administration of public assistance programs since the Goldberg decision. (12) Recognizing the importance of due process protections for public assistance clients is essential. First, despite the fact that the federal welfare reform law was enacted over six years ago, (13) few courts have yet to rule on whether due process protections remain. Documenting the practical importance of due process can influence courts' decisions determining whether due process protections continue to apply. Second, the TANF program is scheduled for reauthorization in 2002, (14) which means that every aspect of the TANF program, including its no provision, is subject to reconsideration. Whether the entitlement provision remains part of the TANF statute will depend on whether Congress and the President are convinced that the significance of due process merits the removal of this provision. Third, while the Food Stamp Program was reauthorized in 2002, (15) Congress might take the opportunity provided by the TANF reauthorization to block grant the Food Stamp Program, with a similar disentitlement to food stamp benefits. This article illustrates the importance of due process by documenting the impact that the lack of due process has had on impoverished families and individuals in New York City. (16) The hardships that they have experienced serve as a reminder that there are real-life consequences behind the sometimes formalistic and legalistic debates over the applicability and scope of due process protections. (17) In fact, it is precisely this real-life impact that contributed to the establishment of due process protections in public assistance. (18) This article's strategy thus reproduces past efforts through the use of contemporary stories. …