EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Five years ago, Congress passed the most extensive welfare reform legislation this country has ever seen. Now, as this legislation faces reauthorization in Congress, it is time to assess the effects of the welfare reform act and its future in American public policy. In many ways, the changes that have occurred since the passage of this legislation are impressive. By September 2000, for example, welfare rolls had fallen an amazing 57 percent from their historic high of five million families in March 1994. That translates into over eight million parents and children who are no longer forced to rely on welfare.

The various parties involved in the 1996 act both rushed to claim not only that the welfare reform legislation caused the dramatic reversal in the size of welfare rolls all across the country but also that over two million former recipients were working because of this legislation. This claim, while containing some truth, obscures a more complex set of circumstances that contributed to the success of welfare reform. In particular, two other circumstances that worked in tandem with the welfare reform act were the strong economy and massively increased aid to those defined as the "working poor." One other circumstance that is often overlooked is the fact that even though the percentage of single mothers in poverty has decreased, this is not necessarily because they have become employed. Rather, as many as 40 percent of mothers who departed the welfare rolls are not working steadily, but are instead relying on support from sources outside welfare funding.

Parties from both the liberal and conservative camps have also failed to take into account the more complex reality involved in the massive reduction of welfare rolls. A combination of circumstances, including a thriving and robust economy, massive increases in governmental spending on programs for the "working poor," heavier reliance on personal networks such as family and friends for support, and the welfare reform legislation all make up pieces of the complex reality of "welfare reform." In order to make an accurate assessment about the future of welfare reform, then, it is necessary to understand each of these factors. Without such a candid assessment, the ability of policymakers to provide further beneficial reforms will be hindered.

In this essay, Douglas J. Besharov and Peter Germanis offer an explication of this complex picture as they evaluate the success of the welfare reform act of 1996. Furthermore, they offer a candid assessment of the weaknesses that still need to be addressed as the reauthorization of this legislation comes before Congress.

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Douglas J. Besharov is the project director of the University of Maryland’s Welfare Reform Academy, a professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, and the Joseph J. and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the author of several books, including Rethinking WIC: An Evaluation of the Women, Infants, and Children Program and Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned.

Peter Germanis is the assistant director of the Welfare Reform Academy at the University of Maryland, a research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, and the administrator of the Committee to Review Welfare Reform Research. He is the co-author of Evaluating Welfare Reform: A Guide for Scholars and Practitioners.