This article was authored by Wade Horn and Andrew Bush in 1997 for the Hudson Institute and updated for republishing in 2000 prior to Wade Horn's confirmation and prior to Andrew Bush taking his job with the department of Health and Human Services. The Acton Institute apologizes for inadvertently omitting this identifying information.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Few would dispute the success of 1996’s welfare reform legislation. Over the past several years, welfare caseloads have dropped nearly 50 percent, as millions of individuals have successfully entered the paid labor force. This is good news, indeed. However, welfare reform’s near-exclusive focus on employment, while successful, neglects broader social problems that must be addressed if the next phase of welfare reform is to be effective—namely, the demise of marriage and the increasing disappearance of fathers from families.

However, because fatherhood and marriage frequently touch upon difficult, painful, and highly personal decisions, policymakers have been reluctant to address them through public policy reforms. As a result, welfare reform efforts rarely have included policies to promote marriage and fatherhood. But it is important to understand that promoting marriage and increasing father involvement are not goals in themselves. Rather, they are means for achieving welfare reform’s most important objective: improving the well-being of children.

Over twenty-three million American children currently live in households without their biological fathers. Although the trend of father absence can be attributed to several factors, much of the blame falls directly on welfare policy over the past few decades. Indeed, in the past, many welfare policies have indirectly discouraged the presence of a father in the home. Welfare reform, therefore, needs to take steps to increase father involvement. But how can policymakers effectively address this issue? Father involvement certainly cannot be mandated by the government; however, all available evidence suggests that the most effective pathway to involved and responsible fatherhood is marriage. Unfortunately, welfare policies frequently operate to punish marriage. For example, federal welfare rules have historically made it more, not less, difficult for married couples with children to receive cash welfare, in comparison with single-parent families.

Without question, a transformation of the welfare system is needed. Welfare policies need to move from being biased against fathers and marriage to actively promoting responsible fatherhood and stable marriages. But how can these goals be accomplished?

In this essay, Wade Horn and Andrew Bush offer several recommendations for a pro-work, pro-family, and pro-father welfare policy. The authors believe that as we move into the next phase of welfare reform, states should consider implementing these recommendations, which ultimately focus on one vital yet straightforward goal: improving the well-being of our nation’s children.

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Wade Horn, Ph.D., is a clinical child psychologist and the former president of the National Fatherhood Initiative. He has served as a presidential appointee on the National Commission on Children and the National Commission on Childhood Disability. In July of 2001, he was named the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Andrew Bush is currently director of the Office of Family Assistance in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to that, he was executive deputy administrator of the Human Resources Administration, City of New York, from 1998 to 2001. He previously served as director of the Welfare Policy Center at the Hudson Institute.