The 20th anniversary of welfare reform: Lessons and takeaways
Past Event
Session 1: Child Well-Being
Session 1: Child Well-Being
Session 2: Marriage and Families
Session 3: Work and Poverty
Session 4: State Policy Choices
Keynote Speeches
Welfare reform was enacted 20 years ago after a highly partisan battle that lasted nearly two years. The final bill, though controversial, was passed by large margins in both the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Since enactment, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program created by the legislation has generated a huge volume of research about its implementation and its effects, with widespread agreement that this massive body of research contains many lessons about not only the effects of the TANF program itself, but also about the functioning and adequacy of the nation’s safety net.
On September 22, 2016, The University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research and the Center on Children and Families at Brookings hosted a series of panels on the effects of welfare reform on child well-being, marriage and families, work and poverty, and state policy choices. These panels featured the nation’s leading experts on welfare reform as well as analysts who played important roles in enactment or implementation of the TANF program. The panels were followed by keynote speeches by Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House during the two-year debate, and Bruce Reed, who headed President Clinton’s Domestic Policy Council and helped formulate the president’s reform proposals.
Agenda
Welcome
Ron Haskins
Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies
Session Materials
Session 1: Child Well-Being
Lawrence Berger
Professor, Doctoral Program Chair, and Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty - University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work
Janet Currie
Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Director of the Center for Health and Well-Being - Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Robert Doar
President and Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies - American Enterprise Institute
Jane Waldfogel
Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work for the Prevention of Children’s and Youth Problems - Columbia University
Session Materials
From this Session
Break
Session 2: Marriage and Families
Daniel Lichter
Ferris Family Professor of Policy Analysis and Management, Robert S. Harrison Director of the Institute for Social Sciences - Cornell University
Wade Horn
Public Sector Health and Human Services Leader - Deloitte
Melissa S. Kearney
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center on Children and Families
Session Materials
From this Session
Break
Session 3: Work and Poverty
Hilary W. Hoynes
Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities - University of California, Berkeley
Ronald Mincy
Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, and Director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being - Columbia University
Robert A. Moffitt
Johns Hopkins University
Lawrence Mead
Professor, Department of Politics - New York University
Sheldon Danziger
President - Russell Sage Foundation
Michael Tanner
Senior Fellow - Cato Institute
Session Materials
From this Session
Lunch
Session 4: State Policy Choices
James P. Ziliak
Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics - Department of Economics, University of Kentucky
Director - Center for Poverty Research, University of Kentucky
Raquel Hatter
Commissioner - Tennessee Department of Human Services
Michael Wiseman
Research Professor of Public Policy, Public Administration, and Economics - The George Washington University
Gordon Berlin
President - MDRC
Don Winstead
Principal and Founder - Don Winstead Consulting, LLC
From this Session
Break
Keynote Speeches
Newt Gingrich
Center for Health Transformation
Speaker of the House of Representatives during the welfare reform debate
Bruce Reed
Head of the Domestic Policy Council during the welfare reform debate
From this Session
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