The Bill's Provisions for Welfare Recipients

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) stipulated that states would no longer offer open-ended entitlements using Aid for Families and Dependent Children (AFDC), but rather distributed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) through block grants from the federal government. TANF was limited to two years and required recipients to work. TANF recipients were also given extensive workforce training and child care. Some forms of government assistance, including daycare assistance, were guaranteed to them through the first years of work after they received no TANF assistance. States were allowed under the rules to use a portion of the block grants covering TANF to supplement low entry-level wages.
  
  

Welfare Recipient Limitations

• Recipients were barred from receiving more than 60 months total of assistance during their lifetimes. They were required to cooperate with child support enforcement against absent fathers, and if convicted of a drug felony were barred from the program for life. Immigrants were barred from receiving TANF until they became U.S. citizens.
  
  

The Bill's Provisions for States

• The block grants funding welfare-to-work initiatives and TANF gave states wide leniency in implementation and spending, but states meeting certain benchmarks in moving welfare recipients into jobs were offered a portion of $1 billion set aside for performance bonuses. Among other initiatives to meet these benchmarks, states often offered tax breaks and training payments to employers who hired welfare-to-work candidates.
  
  

Controversy

• Homeless advocates claim that the bill threw people off welfare who were not ready for the transition, causing more homelessness among families. At the same time, Republicans complain that it did not go far enough and cost too much money. Feminists were unhappy with the emphasis on marriage, stating that it forced women into marriages they did not want.
  
  

Results

• The overall results of this welfare reform act are disputed, with political activists at either end claiming success or utter failure. However, two facts are indisputable. By 2001, AFDC/TANF welfare volume had dropped by approximately 50 percent by some measures, despite numerous provisions for extending benefits outside the rules. In addition, by 1999 the overall poverty rates among children dropped nearly four percent, from 20.8 percent to 16.9 percent.