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Twenty years ago today, a Republican-led Congress accomplished the rare feat of enacting serious and far-reaching entitlement reform when it passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Signed into law by President Bill Clinton, PRWORA transformed the United States’ welfare system, saving billions of dollars and helping millions of people move from government dependence to self-sufficiency. Prior to its passage in 1996, there were 12.6 million Americans enrolled in the nation’s welfare program. Today, only 2.8 million remain in welfare—a 77% decline. PRWORA was a radical departure from its predecessor, the federally-controlled and expansive Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. The 1996 reform block-granted federal funding for welfare to the states and placed certain conditions on the funding, such as a requirement that recipients would only be eligible for federal welfare funds for a maximum of five years. In 2012, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services told states they could... [+] choose to waive PRWORA’s welfare-work requirements—a move that would have effectively gutted the heart of the reform law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) Welfare reform by state Empowered with the ability to create programs that best fit their unique circumstances, states enacted their own reforms over the past two decades. In 2015, The Heartland Institute analyzed every state’s welfare reform policies and published a report card ranking every state on its policies and its success or failure at reducing welfare rolls. Those states that were determined to have been the most successful at reducing their welfare rolls were those that lowered time limits, required recipients to work, integrated welfare services with other social programs, instituted sanctions for recipients who violate welfare rules, and those that created cash diversion programs—which allow case workers to provide people going through temporary hardships to receive lump-sum cash payments that must be used to cover an emergency cost, such as fixing a broken car. For instance, Connecticut, which enacted a flexible cash diversion program and strict time limits for recipients, reduced by greater than 80% enrollment in its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the official name of the federal welfare program. Idaho—which put into place common-sense welfare time limits, work requirements, and a cash diversion program—saw its TANF rolls drop from nearly 23,000 in 1996 to less than 3,000 today. Denying welfare reform's success Despite these significant achievements and the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many politicians—mostly Democrats—still refuse to acknowledge how successful welfare reform has been. In 2012, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services told states they could choose to waive PRWORA’s welfare-work requirements—a move that would have effectively gutted the heart of the reform law—and when Republicans in the House of Representatives voted on a bill to block Obama’s attempt to eliminate work requirements, only 18 Democrats voted alongside nearly all of the House Republicans. During the 2016 Democratic Party primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) referred to welfare reform as “an attack, by and large, on low-income African-Americans” as part of his criticism of Hillary Clinton, who has historically supported her husband’s approval of PRWORA. But even Clinton has in recent years changed her tune on welfare reform. In an interview with WNYC, a public radio station in New York, Clinton said, “Now we have to take a hard look at it again, especially after the Great Recession,” She is now calling for a change to the five-year lifetime limit for recipients, and Clinton says she wants to roll back welfare requirements and change the provision that allows people receiving welfare to count one year of vocational education toward work requirement mandates so that people can receive welfare while attending school for multiple years. Gallery: President Obama: 20 Iconic Images And Personal Moments21 images View gallery A feat worth celebrating Progressive Democrats say welfare reform is partly to blame for higher poverty rates, arguing people find many state requirements too burdensome to complete and lifetime limits too cruel to continue. There is, however, absolutely no evidence showing a clear connection between welfare reform—as well as other similar reform ideas—and higher poverty rates. In fact, poverty has worsened under the Obama administration despite its massive government social programs, increased regulatory scheme, higher taxes, and its $830 billion stimulus package. If increased, government spending truly can help an economy boom, the current U.S. economy should be in the midst of a golden era of prosperity. Instead, 2015 marked the 10th consecutive year without national GDP growth topping 3%, the worst stretch since the Great Depression. Welfare reform remains controversial in some quarters, but it shouldn’t be. Because of this bipartisan law, nearly 10 million people no longer need welfare, a fact people of all political persuasions should celebrate. And if states continue to work to implement additional reforms, such as cash diversion programs and service integration, millions more will be empowered to permanently escape welfare. What were the consequences of the 1996 welfare reform in the United States?Five-Year Time Limit and Sanctions
Two of the more controversial features of the 1996 law were the imposition of the five-year time limit on use of federal dollars to provide assistance to any adult and the mandatory use of financial sanctions against families that do not comply with program requirements.
What changes were brought about by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act?PRWORA granted states greater latitude in administering social welfare programs, and implemented new requirements on welfare recipients, including a five-year lifetime limit on benefits. After the passage of the law, the number of individuals receiving federal welfare dramatically declined.
What did the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 accomplish quizlet?The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed in 1996 turned welfare programs over to the states. One of the challenges of the rural poor is that they have limited access to social welfare offices. Ill health and shorter life expectancy are more common among America's poor.
What changed as a result of the Welfare Reform Act 2012?The most significant reform introduced by the Welfare Reform Act 2012 was Universal Credit, a benefit which is still in the process of replacing six existing means-tested benefits and tax credits for working-age households.
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Did the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed in 1996 turned welfare programs over to the states?
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