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Welfare Politics in Congress: Hearings
Unformatted Document Text:  Mead 1 Introduction In the last decade, the United States carried out the most radical reform of welfare in the history of the program. “Welfare” here means Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the controversial family aid program that defied fundamental change for decades. But in 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) recast AFDC as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The new program ended entitlement (the legal right of all eligibles to receive aid), limited families to five years on the rolls, sharply raised work requirements, and devolved more control of the program to localities. Starting in 1994, the rolls fell by over 60 percent, driven by the new work tests, as well as a good economy and new wage and child care subsidies. Work levels among poor single mothers rose and poverty rates fell, albeit less sharply. 1 The reauthorization of TANF recently approved in Congress changes policy only marginally. Major change in welfare appears to be over for the foreseeable future. This study offers the first in-depth analysis of the Congressional politics behind the welfare revolution. I show over three decades and in detail the shifts in the welfare controversy that shaped the outcome. To my knowledge, this also is the first research to trace the intellectual basis of any dispute in Congress over so long a time. Past Research Past studies of the politics of PRWORA are journalistic. They attribute the reform mostly to Bill Clinton’s promise to “end welfare as we know it” when he ran for president in 1992 and to the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. In PRWORA, the GOP proposed to cut access to family aid and devolve greater control to the states, and Clinton reluctantly agreed. 2 Such accounts are true 1 Lawrence Mead, “Welfare Reform: Meaning and Effects,” Policy Currents 11, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 7-13; Rebecca M. Blank and Ron Haskins, eds., The New World of Welfare: An Agenda for Reauthorization and Beyond (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2001); Greg J. Duncan and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, eds., For Better and For Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families (New York: Russell Sage, 2001). 2 R. Kent Weaver, Ending Welfare as We Know It (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2000); Jason DeParle, American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and the Nation’s Drive to End Welfare (New York: Viking,

Authors: Mead, Lawrence.
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Mead 1
Introduction
In the last decade, the United States carried out the most radical reform of welfare in the
history of the program. “Welfare” here means Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the
controversial family aid program that defied fundamental change for decades. But in 1996, the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) recast AFDC as
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The new program ended entitlement (the legal
right of all eligibles to receive aid), limited families to five years on the rolls, sharply raised work
requirements, and devolved more control of the program to localities. Starting in 1994, the rolls fell
by over 60 percent, driven by the new work tests, as well as a good economy and new wage and
child care subsidies. Work levels among poor single mothers rose and poverty rates fell, albeit less
sharply.
The reauthorization of TANF recently approved in Congress changes policy only
marginally. Major change in welfare appears to be over for the foreseeable future.
This study offers the first in-depth analysis of the Congressional politics behind the welfare
revolution. I show over three decades and in detail the shifts in the welfare controversy that shaped
the outcome. To my knowledge, this also is the first research to trace the intellectual basis of any
dispute in Congress over so long a time.
Past Research
Past studies of the politics of PRWORA are journalistic. They attribute the reform mostly to
Bill Clinton’s promise to “end welfare as we know it” when he ran for president in 1992 and to the
Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. In PRWORA, the GOP proposed to cut access to family
aid and devolve greater control to the states, and Clinton reluctantly agreed.
Such accounts are true
1
Lawrence Mead, “Welfare Reform: Meaning and Effects,” Policy Currents 11, no. 2 (Summer 2001):
7-13; Rebecca M. Blank and Ron Haskins, eds., The New World of Welfare: An Agenda for Reauthorization
and Beyond (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2001); Greg J. Duncan and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, eds., For
Better and For Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families (New York: Russell
Sage, 2001).
2
R. Kent Weaver, Ending Welfare as We Know It (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2000); Jason DeParle,
American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and the Nation’s Drive to End Welfare (New York: Viking,


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