Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Jason A. Turner is a Visiting Fellow in Welfare Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Before joining Heritage, Turner served from 1998-2001 as New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Welfare Commissioner. During his tenure, Turner created the largest work program in the country, which included 28 new Job Centers that provide assistance and support to families on welfare. He also implemented the Mayor's Healthstat initiatives, which assured that all New Yorkers not covered by health insurance were made eligible for Medicaid, Child Health Plus or Family Health Plus. Under Turner's watch, welfare caseloads in the city dropped by 47 percent and more than 400,000 former welfare recipients were placed in jobs.

Prior to his work in New York, Turner was well known as one of the chief architects of the Wisconsin welfare-to-work program under former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. From 1993-1997, Turner directed Thompson's welfare-to-work program and led the policy group charged with designing "Wisconsin Works," which was instituted in September 1997. Welfare dependency in Wisconsin decreased by 85 percent and average wages grew by more than $2000 in the first year after implementation.

Turner worked as Director of Family Assistance at the Health and Human Services Department during the George H.W. Bush Administration. There, he oversaw the federal welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In that position, Turner was responsible for more than 5 million welfare cases with a combined federal, state and local budget of over $17 billion. He also implemented the nationwide Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program (JOBS), as well as welfare-to-work child care programs.