August 22, 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the 1996 welfare reform law. Ten years later, reforms have led to dramatic reductions in welfare dependence, poverty, and recipient unemployment.

I strongly supported the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 because I recognized then that the system was keeping families in a vicious cycle of poverty and dependence. Legislation was crafted with the goal of reducing dependence by promoting job preparation and employment. Passing reform measures was very difficult and generated two extremely different predictions among supporters and opponents.

On the eve of the ten year anniversary, The Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee has released a report detailing the large disparity between the predictions of opponents in 1996 and the accomplishments that have since resulted from the welfare reform bill an related legislation. The report indicates that the 1996 welfare reforms have saved taxpayers billions of dollars by removing waste, fraud and abuse.

Ten years later there have been dramatic reductions in welfare dependence. Welfare cases have decreased 64 percent, as nearly eight million parents and children no longer receive welfare. There are fewer families in poverty. Since 1996, the overall poverty rate has dropped 7 percent while the child poverty rate has dropped 13 percent. Poverty among children in single-mother families decreased 15 percent. In all, 1.4 million fewer children live in poverty today then before reform was passed in 1996.

There have also been remarkable increases in employment and individual earnings resulting from welfare reforms. The number of adults on welfare today who work has more than doubled since 1996. This increased work has meant higher wages and incomes for welfare recipients. Employment among single mothers has increased 34 percent in that time with significant total household income increases among those who left welfare during that time.

The report also shows that 1996 reforms protected taxpayers by eliminating numerous examples of waste, fraud and abuse involving welfare benefits. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been saved throughout the past decade as reforms have prevented prisoners and fugitives from collecting welfare benefits, prohibited payment to those who claim drug addiction and alcoholism as a disability, and have held thousands of arriving non-citizens to their pledge not to collect welfare benefits before they become American citizens.

 The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program established by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 made fundamental changes to the federal-state welfare system designed to assist low-income families. This legislation transformed the system from a program of lifetime entitlement into one of temporary transitional help, promoting personal responsibility by requiring welfare recipients to work for their checks.  This transformation has turned out to be one of the most successful social policy changes in the history of our country. 

This success greatly contrasts with the rhetoric of reform opponents. During House debate on July 18, 1996, Rep. Nancy Pelosi warned, “The welfare reform proposal will make the problems of poverty and dependence much worse because it refuses to make work the cornerstone of welfare reform.”

The 1996 reforms are responsible for record improvements for families and children due to increased work and wages among welfare recipients. Yet, even with the successes of the past decade, more can be done. More recent welfare reforms included in the recently enacted Deficit Reduction Act are designed to raise even more families out of poverty in the decade ahead.

The Deficit Reduction Act reauthorizes and strengthens the nation’s welfare program through 2010, giving low income families and the state agencies that administer welfare programs more resources to reduce poverty and promote employment and personal responsibility.

The remarkable success of the 1996 welfare reform bill provides great hope to me that Congress can work together to eliminate wasteful government spending and strengthen other critical entitlement programs for the future.