ABSTRACT
In August 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in order to "end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparedness, work, and marriage." The legislation transferred much of social welfare policy making and program development to the states. Congress also imposed several new mandates including stricter work requirements and time limits on benefits. Cash payments to impoverished families are now administered under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (fANF) program and funded by federal "block grants" administered by the individual fifty states. The block-granting of funds to the states seemed to mean the repeal of an old covenant between the federal government and the nation's needy that could be traced all the way back to the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt. To others, it was less a reneging on an old promise than a matter of coming to terms-"getting real"-with the mess that the nation's previous welfare system had become. For example, TANF now requires that 90 percent of a state's welfare recipients be moved into work or work-related activities within two years and there is a five-year time limit on most benefits. At its core, TANF transformed cash assistance to poor people from a right to a privilege, contingent upon the ability to perform work.
