LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Welfare Reform: Welfare Reform Bill
built 633 days ago
The House-passed welfare reform bill (H.R.4) proposes to convert the present funding of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and other welfare programs to block grants. Each state would receive a federal allocation fixed in advance. The block grant approach to welfare has been criticized as being unresponsive to changes in economic circumstances. During an economic downturn, for example, welfare caseloads grow. A fixed federal allocation would present states experiencing such downturns with three unpleasant alternatives: reducing support levels, restricting eligibility, or adding supplemental funding out of state funds. But the House bill would ... establish special "rainy day" funds to help meet such unanticipated or emergency funding needs.
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Clinton's welfare reform bill, which was signed on Aug. 22, 1996, obliterated the nation's social safety net. It threw 6 million people, many of them single parents, off of the welfare rolls within three years. It dumped them onto the streets without child care, rent subsidies and continued Medicaid coverage. Families were plunged into crisis, struggling to survive on multiple jobs that paid $6 or $7 an hour, or less than $15,000 a year. But these were the lucky ones. In some states, half of those dropped from the welfare rolls could not find work.
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Following the passage of Senate Bill 104, the department began to develop the rules and regulations that would govern the state's implementation of welfare reform. To comply with the provisions of the act, the department had to obtain the approval of the DHR Board by June 9, 1997 and transmit the rules to the Secretary of State no later than June 10. The board held a public hearing on May 28, reviewed the comments at a June 9 called meeting and unanimously approved the rules.
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Critics made direct predictions about the consequences of welfare reform. For instance, they claimed that the five-year time limit was needlessly short, and that those who exceeded the limit through no fault of their own might turn to begging or crime. They ... felt that too little money was devoted to vocational training. Others criticized the block grant system, claiming that states would not be able to administer the program properly, or would be too motivated by cost. Finally, it was claimed that although the bill might work in a booming economy like that of the 1990s, it would cause significant harm in a recession.
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Even before the federal welfare reform bill was passed, Illinois had already begun to move toward time limits and work requirements. In July 1997 the state eliminated Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and substituted Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which ended entitlements and limited benefits to five years overall and to 24 consecutive months.
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It is plausible that real welfare reform could save the federal budget money in the long-term. But real welfare reform costs money in the short term: the support services needed to end welfare as we know it without making hundreds of thousands of children homeless cost tens of billions of dollars in the first five and ten years. Without such initial investments in reform--for child care, training, job search assistance, and so on--it will fail, and leave a much worse mess to be dealt with in a decade.
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Welfare Reform Bill