Welfare Reform: An Examination of Effects

In 1996, Congress and President Clinton made the most fundamental reforms in American social policy since President Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1965, and arguably since President Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1935. As the October 1, 2002 deadline for reauthorizing the 1996 welfare reform legislation approaches, it is an appropriate time to carefully examine the reforms and their effects, as well as to consider steps Congress should take when the legislation is reauthorized next year.