For immediate release: October 5, 2010
Contact: Ms. Nicky Grist, 347-987-1068

On September 30th, Congress ended welfare funding for marriage programs.  Nicky Grist, executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, says "It is a relief to see the end of a misguided era and, we hope, the beginning of a more reality-based approach to helping individuals and families get out of poverty."

Neither the Healthy Marriage Initiative nor the Responsible Fatherhood Program was extended by the Continuing Resolution that funds federal government operations through December 3, 2010.  Both were created as five-year experiments by the so-called Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.  Grants totaling nearly $750 million were awarded to hundreds of programs under the umbrella of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 2006.

The budget proposed by President Obama in February would have replaced that marriage and fatherhood funding with a new TANF-funded state competition for comprehensive family services. Administration officials have repeatedly stated that marriage education may be just one element of a service bundle, and that the goal is to improve outcomes for all families with children regardless of family structure.

On September 29th, AtMP provided the Senate Finance Committee with background and recommendations for considering the President's proposal.  AtMP recommends new standards for inclusive relationship education, based on analysis of past program strengths and weaknesses.  "Many relationship educators have matured beyond the myth of marriage as panacea; they recognize that healthy relationships take many forms.  Federal funds should help the full range of America's diverse families," says Grist.

AtMP has criticized marriage promotion as an anti-poverty strategy for over a decade.  It published Let Them Eat Wedding Rings in 2001, to remind policy makers that the purpose of welfare should be to reduce poverty, and that individuals and families should be treated fairly regardless of their marital status. Media citations of Rings range from The Nation to The Washington Times; it is used in college courses including economics at Michigan State, philosophy at UMass Boston and social work at UT Austin.  The second edition of Rings, published in 2007, highlights the importance of program evaluations and the marriage movement's success at lobbying state governments to divert 1% of TANF block grants to marriage programs.

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