July 21, 2006

Welfare Reform: A Decade of
Success and a Lifetime of Hope

COLUMBUS , OH - Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) today submitted the following editorial:  

After vetoing two previous Republican bills, on August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton reluctantly signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, more commonly known as the welfare reform act. On the day of the bill’s enactment, The New York Times wrote, “This is not reform, it is punishment.” A decade later, the act represents one of the greatest legislative achievements in the last 50 years, freed millions of Americans from the shackles of poverty, and forever changed Americans’ conceptions of how to compassionately treat poverty in America.

The 1996 welfare reform act retained America’s important social safety net, but broke decades of cyclical dependency on government benefits by encouraging families to move from welfare to work, promoting healthy marriages, and enhancing child-care options for working families. The bill granted great leeway and unprecedented flexibility to states to use federal funds to develop innovative programs to help families leave welfare and begin employment, and to encourage the formation and retention of two-parent families.

The successes of our efforts are indisputable.

Since the adoption of reform, welfare dependency has plummeted in America. Welfare caseloads are down 56% since 1996, and the number of individuals receiving cash assistance has declined 61%. Since 1995, the number of children living in poverty is down 14%. Contrary to the doomsday predictions of welfare reform’s opponents at the time, the act was disproportionately beneficial – not punitive -- to minorities. For African-American and Hispanic children, poverty rates have declined remarkably --20 percent and 28 percent, respectively -- since the bill’s enactment .

While revolutionary upon its passage, welfare reform not predicated on a ‘bootstrap’ mentality, nor was it even tough love; rather, the 1996 bill redirected funds from feeding welfare dependency to providing a framework and support system for recipients to enter the workforce and discover the empowerment of earning a paycheck. I am proud to have been instrumental in the effort to significantly increase the federal child care funding component of the welfare reform act, with the understanding that new work requirements for welfare parents would increase demand for child care services.  Under welfare reform, child care expenditures have quadrupled, rising from $3 billion in 1995 to $12 billion by 2004. In addition, the bill cracked down on deadbeat dads, allowing states to use employment data to track down those who ignored their financial obligations to their families. As a result of these changes, the number of child support collections has doubled over the past decade.

When I served as a Franklin County Municipal Court Judge prior to going to Congress, I saw day in and day out the heartbreaking realities of the old welfare system. I consistently witnessed generations of families – grandparents, parents, and children – before my bench who were trapped by our nation’s welfare system. Often, their struggles began as young, unwed teenage girls who had children, dropped out of school, lacked basic skills necessary for employment, and entered a stagnating world of dependency on government assistance.

Thus, the most encouraging trend to me deriving from the welfare reform bill has been the reversal of America’s single, teenage pregnancy epidemic. The number of babies born to teenage mothers in America is down 30% from its peak in 1991, and in 2004 reached its lowest level since before World War II. By placing time limits on government assistance, buttressing recipients with childcare options, and instilling work requirements, we have created hope and opportunity for countless young women.

The reforms enacted a decade ago and coupled with our commitment to providing important supports like child care, transportation, job training, and medical care, helped to break a miserable cycle of dependency that robbed generations of Americans of their dignity and spirit. I proudly celebrate with my colleagues our Republican-led welfare reforms marking a decade of success.