When President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act on Aug. 22, 1996, the United States adopted a radically new approach to fighting poverty. Gone was a system that entitled poor people to financial aid. It was replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a combined state and federal system requiring work and imposing time limits on eligibility for aid. Welfare reform also permitted states wide latitude to experiment with different ways to help poor people become economically self-sufficient.

Ten years later, the goal of reducing welfare dependence, as measured by reducing the number of people getting welfare, has been attained. At the end of 1996, 12.3 million people were on welfare. At the end of 2005, almost 4.4 million people received assistance, a drop of almost 65 percent. Yet even as the number of people receiving welfare has declined, the poverty rate in this country has risen four years in a row, creating a confusing picture of life at the bottom of the economic ladder.

A years-long stalemate over renewing welfare reform funding and changing rules for the program was resolved when TANF was reauthorized as part of deficit reduction legislation President Bush signed in February 2006. In June, the federal government tightened rules governing work requirements for people receiving welfare, eliciting criticism from some advocates for the poor.

Religious groups have been closely engaged in the current evolution of welfare. They have a large stake in improving the lives of the poor. All religions speak to the need to care for the poor and vulnerable. Religious groups are major providers of social services in America, and their involvement was encouraged even more by Bush’s administration, which has steered money to faith groups that help the disadvantaged. Also, religious advocacy groups have monitored legislation affecting the poor.

Opinions are sharply divided on how successful welfare reform has been. Some poor people have fared well under the new rules, but others, though they no longer receive government assistance, remain mired in poverty. Causes are complicated and can include child care costs, low wages, health care issues, medical costs and more. Still, many people of faith ask a broader question: Should so many children – more than one in six – grow up poor while living in a land of plenty?

Why it matters

Will we always have the poor with us? A 2005 Pew Forum poll (scroll down to "other issues") showed that 69 percent of Americans favored increased government aid to the poor. But Americans also believe in the value of work, and welfare-to-work is built on that common belief. Justice, compassion, responsibility and effort are all values people care deeply about.

Angles for reporters

The 10th anniversary of welfare reform provides a strong peg for taking a look at how well things are going for low-income people in your community. What is the picture of poverty and work? Is the number of working poor growing? What do local social service providers see? How have things changed in the past 10 years?

Jump to background
Jump to state by state statistics

National sources

GOVERNMENT
• The Office of Family Assistance in the Administration for Children and Families (within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) administers welfare. Sidonie Squier is director of OFA; contact 202-401-9275, sidonie.squier@acf.hhs.gov. Her boss is Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families, who is frequently quoted on welfare issues; contact 202-401-2337, wade.horn@acf.hhs.gov. Jane Norris is ACF director of public affairs, 202-401-9216, jane.norris@acf.hhs.gov.
• Jay Hein is director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The office press contact is Alyssa McClenning, 202-456-6708.
• Thirty-three states have liaisons with the federal faith-based initiative.

POLICY ANALYSTS
• Ron Haskins is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He helped write the 1996 welfare reform law and just wrote Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law (Brookings Institution Press, 2006). He believes welfare reform has worked. Contact 202-797-6057, rhaskins@brookings.edu.
• Isabel Sawhill is a co-director of the Center on Children and Families of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a welfare reform expert who focuses on children and poverty. Contact 202-797-6118, isawhill@brookings.edu.
• Olivia Golden is a senior fellow and director of Assessing the New Federalism Project at the Urban Institute, a policy research group in Washington, D.C. From 1997 to 2001, she was assistant secretary for children and families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She said in a July 24, 2005, commentary that welfare reform has succeeded in getting poor people to work, but more support, including more and better child care, is needed to help people keep their jobs. Contact through institute public affairs, 202-261-5709.
• Robert Rector is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a policy research group in Washington, D.C., and has been widely quoted on the subject of welfare reform, which he characterizes as successful in an Aug. 1, 2006, online article. Contact him through Heritage’s media services office, 202-675-1761.
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., offers a trove of welfare analysis at both state and federal levels, including a searchable database of publications by topic and annual analysis. Sharon Parrott is director of welfare reform. Contact 202-408-1080.
• Jim Towey, the former head of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is president of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. He represented Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in legal matters in the United States for 12 years. Contact 724-805-2271.

SCHOLARS
• Mark Courtney is director of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago (starting Sept. 1, 2006, he will be a faculty associate at the center) and since 1999 has analyzed Wisconsin’s innovative program for putting welfare applicants to work. His latest study was released in May. He said in a July 24, 2006, Washington Post editorial that today’s welfare applicants are extremely needy and will need help to work their way out of poverty, which could make it difficult for states to meet tough new work requirements. Contact 773-256-5162, markc@uchicago.edu.
• Greg J. Duncan is an economist at Northwestern University who directs the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. He has published extensively on welfare and poverty, including (as co-editor) For Better and For Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002). Contact 847-467-1503, greg-duncan@northwestern.edu.
• Rebecca Blank, dean of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and co-director of the National Poverty Center there, is an expert on welfare reform and low-income families. She was a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and she co-authored Is the Market Moral? A Dialogue on Religion, Economics and Justice (Brookings Institution, 2004). Contact 734-763-2258, blank@umich.edu.
• Lawrence M. Mead teaches courses about welfare reform, politics and public policy at New York University. He has studied welfare reform in Wisconsin and is one of the nation’s experts on welfare politics. He co-authored Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty, & Welfare Reform (Brookings Institution, 2003). He says that what the Bible says about poverty needs to be reinterpreted. Jesus often made demands of those whom he helped, giving them directions for their lives. Contact 212-998-8540, LMM1@nyu.edu.
• Mary Jo Bane teaches public policy and management at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. From 1993-96 she was assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She co-authored Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion, Poverty, & Welfare Reform (Brookings Institution, 2003). Contact 617-496-9703 after Aug. 28, mary_jo_bane@harvard.edu; her assistant is Michael Blackmore, 617-496-1074.
• Jeffrey Grogger is a co-author of Welfare Reform: Effects of a Decade of Change (Harvard University Press, 2005), which looks at multiple studies of welfare reform to explain why reform has been successful. He teaches urban policy at the University of Chicago. Contact 773-834-0973, jgrogger@uchicago.edu.

RELIGIOUS ADVOCATES

CATHOLIC
• Kathleen A. Curran is policy adviser for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on health and welfare issues. Contact 202-541-3188, kcurran@usccb.org.
• Sister Simone Campbell is national coordinator of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, D.C., and an attorney who worked with low-income people in California for 18 years. Network said the 2006 welfare renewal didn’t do enough for the working poor. Contact Campbell through communications coordinator Stephanie Niedringhaus, 202-347-9797 ext. 224.

EVANGELICAL
• Yonce Shelton is senior policy director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a national network of churches, faith-based organizations and individuals working on social justice concerns, especially poverty. He can speak about accomplishments and challenges in making welfare work. Contact 202-328-8842 ext. 603.
• Amy Sherman is one of the country’s frequently quoted experts on faith-based response to poverty and welfare issues. She is director of the Center on Faith in Communities in Charlottesville, Va., and senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research in Indianapolis. Contact her in Charlottesville, 434-293-5656.
• Stanley Carlson-Thies is director of social policy studies at the Washington, D.C., area Center for Public Justice, a Christian public policy research group. He directed the center’s Welfare Responsibility project and worked for the first team in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Contact 410-571-6300 ext. 13, stanley@cpjustice.org.
• Ron Sider is president and founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, which works on social concerns from an evangelical Christian perspective. Sider has written extensively on poverty. Contact 610-645-9390, ronsider@esa-online.org.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN
• Cheryl J. Sanders is pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C., and teaches Christian ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity. She spoke about the church’s response to poverty at Pentecost 2006, a conference about social justice and faith. Contact her at the church, 202-347-5889, pastor@thirdstreet.org, or at Howard, 202-806-0632, csanders@howard.edu.

MAINLINE PROTESTANT
• Mary Anderson Cooper is the former director of the National Council of Churches TANF campaign and has worked on low-income issues for 30 years. Contact mcooper@episcopalchurch.org.
• Brenda Girton-Mitchell is associate general secretary for justice and advocacy in NCC’s Washington, D.C., office. Contact 202-544-2350.

JEWISH
• The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism explains its position on welfare reform and the principles underlying its position. Barbara Weinstein is legislative director. Contact 202-387-2800, bweinstein@rac.org.
• The Orthodox Union is the umbrella organization for U.S. Orthodox Jewish congregations. Nathan Diament is director of the group’s Washington-based Institute for Public Affairs, which has backed the Bush administration’s initiative to expand the role of faith groups in helping the poor. Contact 202-513-6484.

Background

GOVERNMENT
• The Office of Family Assistance in the Administration for Children and Families (within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) administers welfare and keeps statistics.
• Find TANF financial data by year, including the most recent, for 2004.
• Read a June 28, 2006, HHS news release announcing new rules that tighten work requirements for those receiving welfare.
• Read testimony given during a U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing on July 19, 2006, assessing welfare reform during the past 10 years.
• Read a short primer on poverty statistics from the federal government.

POLICY GROUPS
• The Washington, D.C., policy research group the Urban Institute convened a roundtable on July 25, 2006, to mark the 10th anniversary of welfare reform. At the event, experts with varied views acknowledged the watershed transformation of public assistance for very poor people and offered suggestions to further promote well-being for the economically vulnerable.
• The Heritage Foundation featured U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt at a 10th anniversary presentation on June 13, 2006, about welfare reform that can be viewed online or downloaded.

STUDIES
• See studies done for the federal government through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in HHS, including the required annual report to Congress that measures welfare dependence. That report showed that 3.2 percent of Americans are welfare-dependent and that the poverty rate has increased to 12.5 percent.

ARTICLES
• An Aug. 10, 2006, Seattle Post-Intelligencer story looks at potential problems for Washington state from changes in welfare rules.
• An Aug. 5, 2006, Associated Press story posted by the web site al.com looks at the status of welfare reform in Alabama.
• A July 28, 2006, Catholic News Service story cites conflicting testimony given at a July 19, 2006, hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on welfare reform.
• A July 27, 2006, Economist story calls welfare reform a success but points to difficulties faced by the working poor.
• Read a July 25, 2006, article from the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy on the 10th anniversary of welfare reform
• A July 17, 2006, USA Today story assesses the achievements and challenges of welfare reform at 10.
• A June 19, 2006, article in the Gotham Gazette, which is published by the Citizens Union Foundation, focuses on welfare reform’s impact in New York.

Regional sources

STATE BY STATE
• Find the number of people on welfare in 2005 by state.
• See a list of state TANF directors.
• Find demographic and policy information about economic conditions for families in your state and information about your state’s welfare program through a database of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.  

IN THE NORTHEAST
• David T. Ellwood is a professor of political economy and dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993-95 and co-chaired then-President Clinton’s Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence. With both academic expertise and policy experience, he is one of the country’s authorities on welfare. Contact 617-495-1122, david_ellwood@harvard.edu.
• John Fitzgerald is a professor of economics at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, who researches family well-being and welfare. Contact 207-725-3593, jfitzger@bowdoin.edu.
• The Rev. Thomas J. Massaro is associate professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass. He wrote Catholic Social Teaching and United States Welfare Reform (Liturgical Press, 1998). He also co-wrote the article "Compassion in Action: A Letter to President Bush on Social Policy" for the journal America (2001). Contact 617-492-1960 ext. 286, tmassaro@wjst.edu.  

IN THE EAST
• Michael Horowitz is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, who has written about faith-based help for the poor. Contact 202-974-2412.
• Bishop E. Roy Riley of the New Jersey Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America testified about welfare reform July 19, 2006, before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. He expressed concern about persistent poverty and a growing gap between rich and poor in America. Contact 609-586-6800, bishop@njsynod.org.
• Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. She has commented on welfare reform in a variety of New York publications. Contact through the press office, 212-599-7000.
• Ram Cnaan is a professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania and directs the Program for Religion and Social Policy Research there. He is an expert on how religious congregations provide social services and wrote The Invisible Caring Hand: American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare (New York University Press, 2002). Contact 215-898-5523, cnaan@ssw.upenn.edu.
• Harold Dean Trulear teaches at Howard University School of Divinity and is a fellow of the Center for Public Justice. He specializes in faith-based community work. Contact 202-806-0640, htrulear@howard.edu.
• Heidi Rolland Unruh has studied congregations that provide social services. Most recently she co-wrote Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-Based Social Ministry (Oxford University Press, 2005). She is a policy analyst specializing in welfare and faith-based social services with Evangelicals for Social Action, a social concerns group. Contact heidi@esa-online.org.  

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Anne M. Hallum chairs the political science department of Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. A specialist in religion and politics, she has written about the anti-poverty dynamic of religion. Contact 386-822-7570, ahallum@stetson.edu.
• Elizabeth Bounds is associate director of the graduate division of religion at Emory University in Atlanta. She co-edited the book Welfare Policy: Feminist Critiques (Pilgrim Press, 1999). Contact 404-727-4172, ebounds@emory.edu.
• Harlan Beckley is a professor of religion and founder of the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. The program was profiled in an Aug. 6, 2006, Washington Post story. He edited the book Economic Justice: Selections From Distributive Justice and a Living Wage (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996). Contact through program assistant Linda Davis, 540-458-8784, beckleyh@wlu.edu.  

IN THE SOUTH
• Sociologist John Bartkowski at Mississippi State University has studied faith-based poverty relief in Mississippi. He co-authored Charitable Choices: Religion, Race, and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era (New York University Press, 2003). Contact 662-325-8621, Bartkowski@soc.msstate.edu.
• David Gushee teaches moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and edited Toward a Just and Caring Society: Christian Responses to Poverty in America (Baker Books, 1999). Contact 731-661-5024, dgushee@uu.edu.
• Helen A. Regis is assistant professor of geography and anthropology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She co-wrote the book Charitable Choices: Religion, Race and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era (New York University Press, 2003). Contact 225-578-6171, hregis1@lsu.edu.  

IN THE MIDWEST
• Noel Castellanos is director of the Christian Community Development Association in Chicago. He spoke at Pentecost 2006, sponsored by Call to Renewal, a consortium of churches and faith groups fighting poverty, about the church’s response to poverty. Contact 773-255-5384, Noel@ccda.org.
• Glenn R. Palmberg is president of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He was a scheduled speaker at Pentecost 2006, a conference about faith and social justice, about poverty and the church. Contact him at the church’s Chicago headquarters, 773-907-3301, president@covchurch.org.
• Sheldon H. Danziger is an economist at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy who has extensively studied the effects of welfare reform on work and earnings. He teaches courses on welfare policy and poverty and co-directs the National Poverty Center. At a July 25, 2006, roundtable on welfare, he outlined four lessons learned from a decade of welfare reform: More single mothers have moved from welfare to work than researchers expected 10 years ago; a small group of welfare recipients have multiple problems that make it difficult for them to work; "last hired, first fired" affects those off welfare and newly employed; and when work pays, people will work. Contact 734-615-8321, sheldond@umich.edu.
• Theologian Pam Couture, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., helped United Methodist bishops draft a statement on poverty. Contact 816-245-4828, pcouture@spst.edu.
• Stephen V. Monsma, a research fellow at the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., has studied faith-based responses to poverty and written extensively about it. His newest book is (as co-author) Faith, Hope and Jobs: Welfare to Work in Los Angeles (Georgetown University Press, 2006). Contact 616-526-6993, sm24@calvin.edu.
• Arthur E. Farnsley II directed the research of the Project on Religion and Urban Culture at the Polis Center of Indiana University. He has extensively studied congregations and social services and is one of the authors of Sacred Circles, Public Squares: The Multicentering of American Religion (Indiana University Press, 2004). Contact farnsle@iupui.edu.
• Omar McRoberts teaches sociology at the University of Chicago. He is studying the relationship between African-American religion and social welfare policies. Contact 773-834-8970, omcrober@midway.uchicago.edu.  

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Ronald Angel, a sociology professor at University of Texas at Austin, is a principal investigator in a multiyear research project on children and welfare reform. Contact 512-232-6315, rangel@mail.la.utexas.edu.
• Elizabeth A. Segal is a professor of social work at Arizona State University in Phoenix. She is a co-founding editor of Journal of Poverty and co-edited The Promise of Welfare Reform: Political Rhetoric and the Reality of Poverty in the Twenty-First Century (Haworth Press, 2006). Contact 602-496-0053, esegal@asu.edu.
• J. Matthew Wilson is associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He wrote "Blessed are the Poor: American Protestantism and Attitudes Toward Poverty and Welfare" for the Southeastern Political Review (1999). Contact 214-768-4054, jmwilson@mail.smu.edu.  

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Ellen K. Scott teaches in the sociology department of the University of Oregon in Eugene and has written extensively about welfare reform and its effect on family well-being. Contact 541-346-5075, escott@darkwing.uoregon.edu.
• John G. West Jr. co-edited The Theology of Welfare: Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Conversation About Welfare (University Press of America, 2000). He taught political science at Seattle Pacific University and is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a free-market-oriented think tank in Seattle. Contact 206-292-0401 ext. 110.
• Pamela K. Brubaker is an ethicist and professor of religion at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. She wrote the article "Making Women and Children Matter: Feminist Ethics Confronts Welfare Policy" for the Journal of Poverty (1999) and the book Women Don’t Count: The Challenge of Women’s Poverty to Christian Ethics (Scholars Press, 1994). She has worked in anti-poverty programs. Contact 805-493-3873, brubaker@clunet.edu.