Northeast News
April 30, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — During a stop in Kansas City, Gov. Jay Nixon joined advocates for children and families at Operation Breakthrough to announce his veto of Senate Bill 24, which would hurt needy children.

The bill would remove an estimated 6,400 poor children from public assistance, including more than 2,600 children under the age of five. According to a press release, the legislation contains two provisions that would negatively impact needy children. First, the bill would reduce the lifetime limit for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits to 45 months, without providing an exception for children. As a result, if Senate Bill 24 became law, approximately 6,465 children would be cut off from benefits on January 1st, 2016. An estimated 40 percent of these children are under the age of five. In addition, the bill would also impose a penalty on the child of a parent who fails to engage in work activities and fails to authorize, as it has in other circumstances, a protective payee to receive and administer the child’s share of the benefits.

“There are ways that the legislature could ensure that parents are held accountable for their decisions while at the same time protecting kids — for example, by providing benefits through a responsible guardian,” Nixon said at the press conference. “But again, legislators left children unprotected. They say they’re trying to crack down on adults, but they’ve made kids the collateral damage.”

The legislation is opposed by Empower Missouri, the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, Operation Breakthrough, the Missouri Association for Community Action, Missouri Faith Voices, Child Care Aware of Missouri, the American Academy of Pediatrics-Missouri Chapter, the Missouri Children’s Leadership Council, Paraquad and other groups representing children and families across Missouri. In Fiscal Year 2014, 13 percent fewer families received TANF benefits than did so in Fiscal Year 2013.

“Children already suffer lifelong consequences from poverty; penalizing them further for their parents’ behavior is mean-spirited and just plain wrong,” Nixon said. “When it comes to adults, we can all agree on the need for personal responsibility, but these are children. I don’t sign bills that hurt kids – period.”