ACF Issues Guidance to TANF Agencies on “New Spending Test”

The Administration for Children and Families has provided information to TANF agencies to clarify the appropriate application of 409(a)(7)(B)(i)(II)(aa) of the Social Security Act (the Act) and 45 CFR 263.5(b), commonly known as the “new spending test,” which limits a state’s ability to count state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) expenditures for certain programs that existed in fiscal year (FY) 1995 to the amount that exceeds the FY 1995 expenditures.