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Welfare Reform Reauthorization:  A Crowning Achievement

February 20, 2003

By Timothy T.C. McGhee

 

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) is quite possibly the single greatest achievement in decades to come out of Washington.  Heritage Foundation fellows Pat Fagan and Robert Rector noted three goals of the legislation:  “(1) to reduce welfare dependency and increase employment; (2) to reduce child poverty; and (3) to reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage.”

 

They cite very encouraging statistics that this legislation is accomplishing several of its intended goals:  “3.5 million fewer people live in poverty today than in 1995” and in particular “1.2 million fewer black children in poverty today” than in the mid-1990s, “the lowest point in U.S. history.”  What makes this especially noteworthy is this rate “has continued to fall even during the current recession.  Historically, poverty among these groups has risen sharply during recessions.”

 

The good news is not strictly economic, but extends to out-of-wedlock childbearing and marriage.  “The percentage of births that were out-of-wedlock rose from 7.7 in 1965 to an astonishing 32.6 percent in 1994. However, since welfare reform, the growth in illegitimacy has slowed to a near halt” and “among blacks it has actually dropped.”  “The share of children living in single-mother families has fallen, and the share living in married-couple families has increased, especially among black families.”

 

The 1996 law was set to expire last year, and legislation was introduced to extend the program (H.R. 4737).  However, full reauthorization of the program was postponed until this year.  Last week, the House passed its Welfare Reform reauthorization bill (H.R. 4) by a vote of 230 to 192, which drew commendation from the president.

 

The Washington Post pointed out this bill is the same as last year’s.  Of specific changes to requirements in current law, “The House-passed bill would increase the required level of work from 30 hours per week to 40,” and “the measure would gradually increase the percentage of adults on welfare who must hold jobs, raising it from 50 percent to 70 percent by 2008.”

 

However, more strategic elements are that the bill “would devote $300 million to grants intended to help states foster healthy marriages, and continue a $50 million yearly subsidy to encourage people to abstain from sex before marriage.”  It also includes a new provision that enables HHS to reallocate funds set aside for states that subsequently refuse to accept federal abstinence dollars, such as California, instead of sending that money back to the general Treasury.

 

The marriage proposals have become a lightning rod for criticism.  Very simply, the collapse of marriage in the U.S. is the primary cause of welfare dependence and child poverty.  Last year, one-third of all children were born outside of wedlock.  The poverty rate among single-parent families is almost five times higher than the poverty rate among married-couple families.

 

Work requirements only address the symptom of the much deeper problem, the lack of marriage.  The most effective way to reduce child poverty and increase child well-being is to increase the number of stable, healthy marriages.  H.R. 4 takes much-needed steps toward continuing to address this problem.  Please pray that the Senate acts on this legislation expeditiously and that this marriage-affirming and poverty-reducing law continues.