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Full Opinion
DANDRIDGE, CHAIRMAN, MARYLAND BOARD OF PUBLIC WELFARE, ET AL.
v.
WILLIAMS ET AL.
Supreme Court of United States.
*472 George W. Liebmann, Assistant Attorney General of Maryland, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Francis B. Burch, Attorney General, Robert F. Sweeney, Deputy Attorney General, and J. Michael McWilliams, Assistant Attorney General.
Joseph A. Matera argued the cause and filed a brief for appellees.
Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, and Elizabeth Palmer, Deputy Attorney General, filed a brief for the State of California as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed by Thomas L. Fike for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, and by Carl Rachlin, Anthony B. Ching, Peter E. Sitkin, and Steven J. Antler for the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law et al.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case involves the validity of a method used by Maryland, in the administration of an aspect of its public welfare program, to reconcile the demands of its needy citizens with the finite resources available to meet those demands. Like every other State in the Union, Maryland participates in the Federal Aid to Families *473 With Dependent Children (AFDC) program, 42 U. S. C. § 601 et seq. (1964 ed. and Supp. IV), which originated with the Social Security Act of 1935.[1] Under this jointly financed program, a State computes the so-called "standard of need" of each eligible family unit within its borders. See generally Rosado v. Wyman, ante, p. 397. Some States provide that every family shall receive grants sufficient to meet fully the determined standard of need. Other States provide that each family unit shall receive a percentage of the determined need. Still others provide grants to most families in full accord with the ascertained standard of need, but impose an upper limit on the total amount of money any one family unit may receive. Maryland, through administrative adoption of a "maximum grant regulation," has followed this last course. This suit was brought by several AFDC recipients to enjoin the application of the Maryland maximum grant regulation on the ground that it is in conflict with the Social Security Act of 1935 and with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A three-judge District Court convened pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 2281, held that the Maryland regulation violates the Equal Protection Clause. 297 F. Supp. 450. This direct appeal followed, 28 U. S. C. § 1253, and we noted probable jurisdiction, 396 U. S. 811.
The operation of the Maryland welfare system is not complex. By statute[2] the State participates in the AFDC program. It computes the standard of need for each eligible family based on the number of children in the family and the circumstances under which the family lives. In general, the standard of need increases with each additional person in the household, but the increments *474 become proportionately smaller.[3] The regulation here in issue imposes upon the grant that any single family may receive an upper limit of $250 per month in certain counties and Baltimore City, and of $240 per month elsewhere in the State.[4] The appellees all *475 have large families, so that their standards of need as computed by the State substantially exceed the maximum grants that they actually receive under the regulation. The appellees urged in the District Court that the maximum grant limitation operates to discriminate against them merely because of the size of their families, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They claimed further that the regulation is incompatible with the purpose of the Social Security Act of 1935, as well as in conflict with its explicit provisions.
In its original opinion the District Court held that the Maryland regulation does conflict with the federal statute, and also concluded that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee. After reconsideration on motion, the court issued a new opinion resting its determination of the regulation's invalidity entirely on the constitutional ground.[5] Both the statutory and constitutional issues have been fully briefed and argued here, and the judgment of the District Court must, of course, be affirmed if the Maryland regulation is in conflict with either the federal statute or the Constitution.[6] We consider the statutory question first, because *476 if the appellees' position on this question is correct, there is no occasion to reach the constitutional issues. Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U. S. 288, 346-347 (Brandeis, J., concurring); Rosenberg v. Fleuti, 374 U. S. 449.
I
The appellees contend that the maximum grant system is contrary to § 402 (a) (10) of the Social Security Act, as amended,[7] which requires that a state plan shall
"provide . . . that all individuals wishing to make application for aid to families with dependent children shall have opportunity to do so, and that aid to families with dependent children shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to all eligible individuals."
The argument is that the state regulation denies benefits to the younger children in a large family. Thus, the appellees say, the regulation is in patent violation of the Act, since those younger children are just as "dependent" *477 as their older siblings under the definition of "dependent child" fixed by federal law.[8] See King v. Smith, 392 U. S. 309. Moreover, it is argued that the regulation, in limiting the amount of money any single household may receive, contravenes a basic purpose of the federal law by encouraging the parents of large families to "farm out" their children to relatives whose grants are not yet subject to the maximum limitation.
It cannot be gainsaid that the effect of the Maryland maximum grant provision is to reduce the per capita benefits to the children in the largest families. Although the appellees argue that the younger and more recently arrived children in such families are totally deprived of aid, a more realistic view is that the lot of the entire family is diminished because of the presence of additional children without any increase in payments. Cf. King v. Smith, supra, at 335 n. 4 (DOUGLAS, J., concurring). It is no more accurate to say that the last child's grant is wholly taken away than to say that the grant of the first child is totally rescinded. In fact, it is the family grant *478 that is affected. Whether this per capita diminution is compatible with the statute is the question here. For the reasons that follow, we have concluded that the Maryland regulation is permissible under the federal law.
In King v. Smith, supra, we stressed the States' "undisputed power," under these provisions of the Social Security Act, "to set the level of benefits and the standard of need." Id., at 334. We described the AFDC enterprise as "a scheme of cooperative federalism," id., at 316, and noted carefully that "[t]here is no question that States have considerable latitude in allocating their AFDC resources, since each State is free to set its own standard of need and to determine the level of benefits by the amount of funds it devotes to the program." Id., at 318-319.
Congress was itself cognizant of the limitations on state resources from the very outset of the federal welfare program. The first section of the Act, 42 U. S. C. § 601 (1964 ed., Supp. IV), provides that the Act is
"For the purpose of encouraging the care of dependent children in their own homes or in the homes of relatives by enabling each State to furnish financial assistance and rehabilitation and other services, as far as practicable under the conditions in such State, to needy dependent children and the parents or relatives with whom they are living to help maintain and strengthen family life and to help such parents or relatives to attain or retain capability for the maximum self-support and personal independence consistent with the maintenance of continuing parental care and protection . . . ." (Emphasis added.)
Thus the starting point of the statutory analysis must be a recognition that the federal law gives each State great latitude in dispensing its available funds.
*479 The very title of the program, the repeated references to families added in 1962, Pub. L. 87-543, § 104 (a) (3), 76 Stat. 185, and the words of the preamble quoted above, show that Congress wished to help children through the family structure. The operation of the statute itself has this effect. From its inception the Act has defined "dependent child" in part by reference to the relatives with whom the child lives.[9] When a "dependent child" is living with relatives, then "aid" also includes payments and medical care to those relatives, including the spouse of the child's parent. 42 U. S. C. § 606 (b) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). Thus, as the District Court noted, the amount of aid "is . . . computed by treating the relative, parent or spouse of parent, as the case may be, of the `dependent child' as a part of the family unit." 297 F. Supp., at 455. Congress has been so desirous of keeping dependent children within a family that in the Social Security Amendments of 1967 it provided that aid could go to children whose need arose merely from their parents' unemployment, under federally determined standards, although the parent was not incapacitated. 42 U. S. C. § 607 (1964 ed., Supp. IV).
The States must respond to this federal statutory concern for preserving children in a family environment. Given Maryland's finite resources, its choice is either to support some families adequately and others less adequately, or not to give sufficient support to any family. We see nothing in the federal statute that forbids a State to balance the stresses that uniform insufficiency of payments would impose on all families against the greater ability of large familiesbecause of the inherent *480 economics of scaleto accommodate their needs to diminished per capita payments. The strong policy of the statute in favor of preserving family units does not prevent a State from sustaining as many families as it can, and providing the largest families somewhat less than their ascertained per capita standard of need.[10] Nor does the maximum grant system necessitate the dissolution of family bonds. For even if a parent should be inclined to increase his per capita family income by sending a child away, the federal law requires that the child, to be eligible for AFDC payments, must live with one of several enumerated relatives.[11] The kinship tie may be attenuated but it cannot be destroyed.
The appellees rely most heavily upon the statutory requirement that aid "shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to all eligible individuals." 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (10) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). But since the statute leaves the level of benefits within the judgment of the State, this language cannot mean that the "aid" furnished must equal the total of each individual's standard of need in every family group. Indeed the appellees do not deny that a scheme of proportional reductions for all families could be used that would result in no individual's receiving aid equal to his standard of need. As we have *481 noted, the practical effect of the Maryland regulation is that all children, even in very large families, do receive some aid. We find nothing in 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (10) (1964 ed., Supp. IV) that requires more than this.[12] So long as some aid is provided to all eligible families and all eligible children, the statute itself is not violated.
This is the view that has been taken by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), who is charged with the administration of the Social Security Act and the approval of state welfare plans. The parties have stipulated that the Secretary has, on numerous occasions, approved the Maryland welfare scheme, including its provision of maximum payments to any one family, a provision that has been in force in various forms since 1947. Moreover, a majority of the States pay less than their determined standard of need, and 20 of these States impose maximums on family grants of the kind here in issue.[13] The Secretary has not disapproved any state plan because of its maximum grant *482 provision. On the contrary, the Secretary has explicitly recognized state maximum grant systems.[14]
Finally, Congress itself has acknowledged a full awareness of state maximum grant limitations. In the Amendments of 1967 Congress added to § 402 (a) a subsection, 23:
"[The State shall] provide that by July 1, 1969, the amounts used by the State to determine the needs of individuals will have been adjusted to reflect fully changes in living costs since such amounts were established, and any maximums that the State imposes on the amount of aid paid to families will have been proportionately adjusted." 81 Stat. 898, 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (23) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). (Emphasis added.)
This specific congressional recognition of the state maximum grant provisions is not, of course, an approval of any specific maximum. The structure of specific maximums Congress left to the States, and the validity of any such structure must meet constitutional tests. However, the above amendment does make clear that Congress *483 fully recognized that the Act permits maximum grant regulations.[15]
For all of these reasons, we conclude that the Maryland regulation is not prohibited by the Social Security Act.
II
Although a State may adopt a maximum grant system in allocating its funds available for AFDC payments without violating the Act, it may not, of course, impose a regime of invidious discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Maryland says that its maximum grant regulation is wholly free of any invidiously discriminatory purpose or effect, and that the regulation is rationally supportable on at least four entirely valid grounds. The regulation can be clearly justified, Maryland argues, in terms of legitimate state interests in encouraging gainful employment, in maintaining an equitable balance in economic status as between welfare families and those supported *484 by a wage-earner, in providing incentives for family planning, and in allocating available public funds in such a way as fully to meet the needs of the largest possible number of families. The District Court, while apparently recognizing the validity of at least some of these state concerns, nonetheless held that the regulation "is invalid on its face for overreaching," 297 F. Supp., at 468that it violates the Equal Protection Clause "[b]ecause it cuts too broad a swath on an indiscriminate basis as applied to the entire group of AFDC eligibles to which it purports to apply . . . ." 297 F. Supp., at 469.
If this were a case involving government action claimed to violate the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, a finding of "overreaching" would be significant and might be crucial. For when otherwise valid governmental regulation sweeps so broadly as to impinge upon activity protected by the First Amendment, its very overbreadth may make it unconstitutional. See, e. g., Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479. But the concept of "overreaching" has no place in this case. For here we deal with state regulation in the social and economic field, not affecting freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and claimed to violate the Fourteenth Amendment only because the regulation results in some disparity in grants of welfare payments to the largest AFDC families.[16] For this Court to approve the invalidation of state economic or social regulation as "overreaching" would be far too reminiscent of an era when the Court thought the Fourteenth Amendment gave it power to strike down state laws "because they may be unwise, improvident, or out of harmony with a particular school of thought." Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U. S. 483, 488. That *485 era long ago passed into history. Ferguson v. Skrupa, 372 U. S. 726.
In the area of economics and social welfare, a State does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect. If the classification has some "reasonable basis," it does not offend the Constitution simply because the classification "is not made with mathematical nicety or because in practice it results in some inequality." Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 78. "The problems of government are practical ones and may justify, if they do not require, rough accommodationsillogical, it may be, and unscientific." Metropolis Theatre Co. v. City of Chicago, 228 U. S. 61, 69-70. "A statutory discrimination will not be set aside if any state of facts reasonably may be conceived to justify it." McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U. S. 420, 426.
To be sure, the cases cited, and many others enunciating this fundamental standard under the Equal Protection Clause, have in the main involved state regulation of business or industry. The administration of public welfare assistance, by contrast, involves the most basic economic needs of impoverished human beings. We recognize the dramatically real factual difference between the cited cases and this one, but we can find no basis for applying a different constitutional standard.[17] See Snell v. Wyman, 281 F. Supp. 853, aff'd, 393 U. S. 323. It is a standard that has consistently been applied to state legislation restricting the availability of employment opportunities. Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U. S. 464; Kotch v. Board of River Port Pilot Comm'rs, 330 U. S. 552. See also Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603. And it is a *486 standard that is true to the principle that the Fourteenth Amendment gives the federal courts no power to impose upon the States their views of what constitutes wise economic or social policy.[18]
Under this long-established meaning of the Equal Protection Clause, it is clear that the Maryland maximum grant regulation is constitutionally valid. We need not explore all the reasons that the State advances in justification of the regulation. It is enough that a solid foundation for the regulation can be found in the State's legitimate interest in encouraging employment and in avoiding discrimination between welfare families and the families of the working poor. By combining a limit on the recipient's grant with permission to retain money earned, without reduction in the amount of the grant, Maryland provides an incentive to seek gainful employment. And by keying the maximum family AFDC grants to the minimum wage a steadily employed head of a household receives, the State maintains some semblance of an equitable balance between families on welfare and those supported by an employed breadwinner.[19]
It is true that in some AFDC families there may be no person who is employable.[20] It is also true that with respect to AFDC families whose determined standard of need is below the regulatory maximum, and who therefore receive grants equal to the determined standard, the employment incentive is absent. But the Equal Protection Clause does not require that a State must *487 choose between attacking every aspect of a problem or not attacking the problem at all. Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61. It is enough that the State's action be rationally based and free from invidious discrimination. The regulation before us meets that test.
We do not decide today that the Maryland regulation is wise, that it best fulfills the relevant social and economic objectives that Maryland might ideally espouse, or that a more just and humane system could not be devised. Conflicting claims of morality and intelligence are raised by opponents and proponents of almost every measure, certainly including the one before us. But the intractable economic, social, and even philosophical problems presented by public welfare assistance programs are not the business of this Court. The Constitution may impose certain procedural safeguards upon systems of welfare administration, Goldberg v. Kelly, ante, p. 254. But the Constitution does not empower this Court to second-guess state officials charged with the difficult responsibility of allocating limited public welfare funds among the myriad of potential recipients. Cf. Steward Mach. Co. v. Davis, 301 U. S. 548, 584-585; Helvering v. Davis, 301 U. S. 619, 644.
The judgment is reversed.
*488 APPENDIX TO OPINION OF THE COURT
The following was the schedule for determining subsistence needs, exclusive of rent, at the time this action was brought. Md. Manual of Dept. of Pub. Welfare, pt. II, Rule 200, Sched. A, p. 27:
STANDARD FOR DETERMINING COST OF SUBSISTENCE NEEDS
_________________________________________________________________________________________
I II III IV V
___________________________________________________________
Monthly costs when
Number of persons in ___________________________________________________________
assistance unit (include
unborn child as an No heat or Light and/ Heat with Heat, cook- Heat
additional person) utilities or cooking or without ing fuel and all
included fuel in- light and water utilities
with cluded included heating included
shelter with with included with
shelter shelter with shelter shelter
_________________________________________________________________________________________
1 person living:
Alone_____________________ $51.00 $49.00 $43.00 $40.00 $38.00
With 1 person_____________ 42.00 41.00 38.00 35.00 35.00
With 2 persons____________ 38.00 37.00 35.00 34.00 33.00
With 3 or more persons____ 36.00 35.00 34.00 33.00 32.00
2 persons living:
Alone_____________________ 84.00 82.00 76.00 72.00 70.00
With 1 other person_______ 76.00 74.00 70.00 68.00 66.00
With 2 or more other
persons__________________ 72.00 70.00 68.00 66.00 64.00
3 persons living:
Alone_____________________ 113.00 110.00 105.00 101.00 99.00
With 1 or more other
persons__________________ 108.00 106.00 101.00 99.00 97.00
4 persons_____________________ 143.00 140.00 135.00 131.00 128.00
5 persons_____________________ 164.00 162.00 156.00 152.00 150.00
6 persons_____________________ 184.00 181.00 176.00 172.00 169.00
7 persons_____________________ 209.00 205.00 201.00 197.00 193.00
8 persons_____________________ 235.00 231.00 227.00 222.00 219.00
9 persons_____________________ 259.00 256.00 251.00 247.00 244.00
10 persons____________________ 284.00 281.00 276.00 271.00 268.00
Each additional person over
10 persons___________________ 24.50 24.50 24.50 24.50 24.50
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Modification of standard for cost of eating in restaurant: Add $15 per individual.
Other schedules set the estimated cost of shelter in the various counties in Maryland. See id., Sched. BPlan A, p. 29; Sched. B Plan B, p. 30. The present schedules, which are substantially the same, appear in the Md. Manual of Dept. of Social Services, Rule 200, pp. 33, 35.
*489 MR. JUSTICE BLACK, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, concurring.
Assuming, as the Court apparently does, that individual welfare recipients can bring an action against state welfare authorities challenging an aspect of the State's welfare plan as inconsistent with the provisions of the Social Security Act, 42 U. S. C. §§ 601-610 (1964 ed. and Supp. IV), even though the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare has determined as he has here that the federal and state provisions are consistent, cf. Rosado v. Wyman, ante, p. 430 (BLACK, J., dissenting), I join in the opinion of the Court in this case.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion, with one reservation which I deem called for by certain implications that might be drawn from the opinion.
As I stated in dissent in Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 658-663 (1969), I find no solid basis for the doctrine there expounded that certain statutory classifications will be held to deny equal protection unless justified by a "compelling" governmental interest, while others will pass muster if they meet traditional equal protection standards. See also my dissenting opinion in Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U. S. 641, 660-661 (1966). Except with respect to racial classifications, to which unique historical considerations apply, see Shapiro, at 659, I believe the constitutional provisions assuring equal protection of the laws impose a standard of rationality of classification, long applied in the decisions of this Court, that does not depend upon the nature of the classification or interest involved.
*490 It is on this basis, and not because this case involves only interests in "the area of economics and social welfare," ante, at 485, that I join the Court's constitutional holding.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, dissenting.
Appellees, recipients of benefits under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) program, brought this suit under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 to have declared invalid and permanently enjoined the enforcement of the Maryland maximum grant regulation, which places a ceiling on the amount of benefits payable to a family under AFDC. They alleged that the regulation was inconsistent with the Social Security Act and that it denied equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. I do not find it necessary to reach the constitutional argument in this case, for in my view the Maryland regulation is inconsistent with the terms and purposes of the Social Security Act.
The Maryland regulation under attack, Rule 200, § X, B, of the Maryland Department of Social Services, places an absolute limit of $250 per month on the amount of a grant under AFDC, regardless of the size of the family and its actual need.[1] The effect of this regulation is to deny benefits to additional children born into a family of six, thus making it impossible for families of seven persons or more to receive an amount commensurate with their actual need in accordance with standards formulated by the Maryland Department of Social Services, whereas families of six or less can receive the full amount of their need as so determined. Appellee Williams, according to the computed need for herself and her eight *491 children, should receive $296.15 per month. Appellees Gary should receive $331.50 for themselves and their eight children. Instead, these appellees received the $250 maximum grant.
In King v. Smith, 392 U. S. 309, 318-319, this Court stated: "There is no question that States have considerable latitude in allocating their AFDC resources, since each State is free to set its own standard of need and to determine the level of benefits by the amount of funds it devotes to the program." That dictum, made in the context of a case that dealt with Alabama's "substitute father" regulation, does little to clarify the limits of state authority. The holding in King was that the Alabama regulation, which denied AFDC benefits to the children of a mother who "cohabited" in or outside her home with an able-bodied man, was invalid because it defined "parent" in a manner inconsistent with § 406 (a) of the Social Security Act, 42 U. S. C. § 606 (a) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). The Court rejected the State's contention that its regulation was "a legitimate way of allocating its limited resources available for AFDC assistance." 392 U. S., at 318. Thus, whatever else may be said of the "latitude" extended to States in determining the benefits payable under AFDC, the holding in King makes clear that it does not include restrictions on the payment of benefits that are incompatible with the Social Security Act.
The methods by which a State can limit AFDC payments below the level of need are numerous. The method used in King was to deny totally benefits to a specifically defined class of otherwise eligible recipients. Another method, which was disapproved by Congress in § 402 (a) (10) of the Social Security Act, 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (10) (1964 ed., Supp. IV), was to refuse to take additional applications pending a decrease in the number of recipients on the assistance rolls or an increase in available funds. The two methods most commonly employed *492 by the States at present, however, are percentage reductions and grant maximums. See Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), State Maximums and Other Methods of Limiting Money Payments to Recipients of the Special Types of Public Assistance, Oct. 1968, Tables 2, 3 (NCSS Report D-3). Grant maximums, in which payments are made according to need but subject to a stated dollar maximum, are of two types: individual maximums and family maximums. Only the latter type is at issue in the present case. Percentage reductions involve payments of a fixed percentage of actual need as determined by the State's need standard.
The authority given the States to set the level of benefits payable under their AFDC plans stems from § 401 of the Social Security Act, 42 U. S. C. § 601 (1964 ed., Supp. IV), which states the purpose of the federal AFDC appropriations as "enabling each State to furnish financial assistance and rehabilitation and other services, as far as practicable under the conditions in such State. . . ." (Emphasis added.) It is significant in this respect that the Court in King referred only to a State's determination of the level of benefits "by the amount of funds it devotes to the [AFDC] program." 392 U. S., at 318-319 (emphasis added). The language of § 401 and the language of the Court in King both reflect a concern that the Federal Government not require a state legislature to appropriate more money for welfare purposes than it is willing and able to appropriate. The use of the matching formula in § 403 of the Act, 42 U. S. C. § 603 (1964 ed., Supp. IV), supports this deference to the fiscal decisions of state legislatures. The question of a State's authority to pay less than its standard of need, however, has never been expressly decided.
Assuming, arguendo, that a State need not appropriate sufficient funds to pay all eligible AFDC recipients the *493 full amount of their need, it does not follow that it can distribute such funds as it deems appropriate in a manner inconsistent with the Social Security Act. The question involved here is not one of ends; it is one of means. Thus the United States Government, in its Memorandum as Amicus Curiae in Rosado v. Wyman, decided this day, ante, p. 397, stated, at 6-7:
"Maximums, whether so many dollars per individual or a total number of dollars per family, have an arbitrary aspect lacking from ratable reductions, since their application means that one family or individual will receive a smaller proportion of the amounts he is determined to need under the state's test than another family or individual. Where percentage reductions are used, the payment of every family is reduced proportionately . . . . [T]his aspect explains why Congress might wish to distinguish between maximums and ratable reductions as a means of reducing a state's financial obligation and, at least inferentially, to disfavor the former."
The District Court, in its initial ruling that the Maryland regulation was inconsistent with the Social Security Act, relied primarily on § 402 (a) (10) of the Act, which provides that "all individuals wishing to make application for aid to families with dependent children shall have opportunity to do so, and that aid to [families with] dependent children shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to all eligible individuals." 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (10) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). (Emphasis added.) This provision was added by the Social Security Act Amendments of 1950, 64 Stat. 549. The House Committee on Ways and Means, where the provision originated, explained its purpose as follows:
"Shortage of funds in aid to dependent children has sometimes, as in old-age assistance, resulted in *494 a decision not to take more applications or to keep eligible families on waiting lists until enough recipients could be removed from the assistance rolls to make a place for them. . . . [T]his difference in treatment accorded to eligible people results in undue hardship on needy persons and is inappropriate in a program financed from Federal funds." H. R. Rep. No. 1300, 81st Cong., 1st Sess., 48 (1949).
In the court below, the appellants relied upon this legislative history to argue that the "eligible individuals" to whom aid must be furnished are the applicants for aid referred to in the beginning of the provision, and not the individual members of a family unit. I find nothing in the Act or in the legislative history of § 402 (a) (10) which supports that argument.
The purpose of the AFDC program, as stated in the Act, is to encourage "the care of dependent children in their own homes or in the homes of relatives by enabling each State to furnish financial assistance and rehabilitation and other services, as far as practicable under the conditions in such State, to needy dependent children and the parents or relatives with whom they are living to help maintain and strengthen family life . . . ." Social Security Act § 401, 42 U. S. C. § 601 (1964 ed., Supp. IV) (emphasis added). The terms "dependent child" and "relative with whom any dependent child is living" are defined in § 406 of the Act, 42 U. S. C. § 606 (1964 ed., Supp. IV).
The aid provided through the AFDC program has always been intended for the individual dependent children, not for those who apply for the aid on their behalf. The Senate Committee on Finance, in its report on the Social Security Bill of 1935, stated this purpose in the following terms:
"The heart of any program for social security must be the child. All parts of the Social Security *495 Act are in a very real sense measures for the security of children. . . .
"In addition, however, there is great need for special safeguards for many underprivileged children. Children are in many respects the worst victims of the depression. . . .
"Many of the children included in relief families present no other problem than that of providing work for the breadwinner of the family. These children will be benefited through the work relief program and still more through the revival of private industry. But there are large numbers of children in relief families which will not be benefited through work programs or the revival of industry.
"These are the children in families which have been deprived of a father's support and in which there is no other adult than one who is needed for the care of the children. . . .
"With no income coming in, and with young children for whom provision must be made for a number of years, families without a father's support require public assistance, unless they have been left with adequate means or are aided by friends and relatives. . . . Through cash grants adjusted to the needs of the family it is possible to keep the young children with their mother in their own home, thus preventing the necessity of placing the children in institutions. This is recognized by everyone to be the least expensive and altogether the most desirable method for meeting the needs of these families that has yet been devised." S. Rep. No. 628, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 16-17 (1935) (emphasis added).
Prior to 1950, no specific provision was made for the need of the parent or other relative with whom the dependent child was living. Although this underscores *496 the fact that the payments were intended to benefit the children and not the applicants who received those payments, the exclusion from the federal scheme of provision for the need of the caring relative operated effectively to dilute the ability of the AFDC payments to meet the need of the child. To correct this latter deficiency, the 1950 Amendments allowed provision for the needs of this caring relative. The Report of the House Committee on Ways and Means stated:
"Particularly in families with small children, it is necessary for the mother or another adult to be in the home full time to provide proper care and supervision. Since the person caring for the child must have food, clothing, and other essentials, amounts allotted to the children must be used in part for this purpose if no other provision is made to meet her needs. . . .
.....
"To correct the present anomalous situation wherein no provision is made for the adult relative and to enable States to make payments that are more nearly adequate, the bill would include the relative with whom the dependent child is living as a recipient for Federal matching purposes. . . ." H. R. Rep. No. 1300, 81st Cong., 1st Sess., 46 (1949).
This amendment emphasizes the congressional concern with fully meeting the needs of the dependent children in a given family; and it would seem to negative the necessity of those children sharing their individual allocations with other essential members of the family unit.
There is other evidence that Congress intended each eligible recipient to receive his fair share of benefits under the AFDC program. The Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 provided that a state AFDC plan must "provide for the development and application of a program *497 for [services to maintain and strengthen family life] for each child who receives aid to families with dependent children . . . ." 42 U. S. C. § 602 (a) (13). The Social Security Amendments of 1967, which extended this program of "family services" to relatives receiving AFDC payments and "essential persons" living in the same home as the child and relative, retained the emphasis on providing these services to "each appropriate individual." Social Security Act, §§ 402 (a) (14), (15), 42 U. S. C. §§ 602 (a) (14), (15) (1964 ed., Supp. IV). The Senate Finance Committee Report on the 1967 Amendments stated:
"Under the Social Security Act Amendments of 1962, an amendment was added to title IV requiring the State welfare agency to make a program for each child, identifying the services needed, and then to provide the necessary services. This has proven a useful amendment, for it has required the States to give attention to the children and to provide services necessary to carry out the plans for the individual child. . . . [T]he committee believes that it is essential to broaden the requirement for the program of services for each child to include the entire family. The committee bill would require, therefore, that the States establish a social services program for each AFDC family. Thus there will be a broadened emphasis to include a recognition of the needs of all members of the family, including `essential persons.'" S. Rep. No. 744, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 155 (1967).
These "family services" provisions are helpful in interpreting the words "all eligible individuals" in § 402 (a) (10) of the Act for they reveal Congress' overriding concern with meeting the needs of each eligible recipient of aid under the AFDC program. The resources commanded *4