Foreword
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, making good on his now famous promise to "end welfare as we know it." The reform fundamentally changed welfare by replacing a 61-year-old guarantee of Federal aid to the poor with block grants to States under a program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).Under the old system, which began during the Great Depression, the Federal Government provided fairly uniform benefits to the Nation’s poor (mostly mothers and children) without regard to their personal circumstances and with no time limit. But over time this…
