What Happened in 2002

The House of Representatives enacted welfare reform legislation (H.R. 4737) largely in accordance with the Bush agenda. The Senate failed to act, but the leading Senate bill, designed by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), would have effectively repealed much of the existing welfare reform.

What to Do in 2003

In 2003, the Bush Administration should intensify and expand the success of welfare reform by promoting work, strengthening marriage, and expanding abstinence education.

• Promote work. A critical element of the 1996 welfare reform was the establishment of federal work requirements. TANF's work requirements have been successful in increasing employment and reducing poverty. The Administration should continue its efforts to strengthen the work participation/caseload reduction requirements of the TANF program along the lines of the TANF reauthorization bill recently passed in the House.

The Administration should seek to expand the success of welfare reform by establishing TANF-style work requirements in other programs, such as food stamps and public housing. The current food stamp caseload closely resembles the caseload of the old pre-reform Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. However, while AFDC has been successfully replaced by the new work-oriented TANF program, the food stamp program remains almost completely unreformed. The successful principles of the TANF program should be applied to food stamps: as a condition of receiving aid, able-bodied, non-elderly recipients should be required to obtain jobs or prepare for work. The objections that will be raised against this change will be identical to the objections raised against the reform of AFDC in 1996 (e.g., children will be harmed and reform will cost more money). These objections proved to be wrong with respect to AFDC and they are equally erroneous with respect to food stamps.

• Promote healthy marriage. The erosion of marriage is a central factor behind most social problems. More than 80 percent of long-term child poverty occurs in broken or never-married families. Of the more than $200 billion that government spends on means-tested aid to children, three-quarters goes to single-parent families. The Administration should continue its efforts to have $300 million in TANF funds allocated to programs to promote healthy marriages. However, efforts to strengthen marriage should not be limited to TANF. Pilot programs to promote healthy marriage--similar to those proposed for the TANF programs--should be established in a wide variety of fields. For example, programs could be established in the community mental health department at the Department of Health and Human Services and in the departments that oversee youth crime and domestic violence at the Department of Justice.
• Expand abstinence education. The Administration should continue its efforts to increase funding for abstinence education, drawing upon lessons learned from the remarkable success of abstinence in Uganda. The unprecedented decline in AIDS in Uganda due to abstinence stands in stark contrast to the failure of massive condom programs across the continent. Uganda's record has impressed even liberals; the New Republic has acknowledged "Uganda's experience suggests that abstinence and fidelity may be the keys to whipping AIDS in Africa. It's an idea with dramatic implications."1 The Administration should also work to improve the safe sex programs for adolescents promoted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). CDC focuses almost exclusively on encouraging condom use. Yet, the two strongest factors in reducing the likelihood of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases are delay in the onset of sexual activity and reduction in the number of sexual partners. These important themes are almost completely absent from CDC materials. The Administration should insist that CDC broaden and improve its messages to youth.

Robert Rector is Senior Research Fellow in Welfare and Family Issues at the Heritage Foundation.

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