ABSTRACT
In August 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, more commonly known
as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. The act calls for drastic reductions in
national spending in the areas of Aid to Families with Dependent Chil
dren (AFDC), Medicaid, and food stamps, and it dramatically shifts re
sponsibility for the administration of these programs from the national
government to state governments. While this act symbolizes the most
dramatic policy shift in the area of social welfare in recent history, the na
tional mood was beginning to shift away from welfare as an entitlement
program and toward welfare as a privilege in the 1980s. Congress had al
ready passed the Family Support Act of 1988, which mandated that states
establish programs to move welfare recipients into the work force
through job training, educational assistance, and transitional child care,
transportation, and medical benefits.
