Welfare Reform Dbq

uring the time of the great depression, there was SOME assitance provided to assist the poor and needy but when Roosevelt came into office the "New deal," was put into place. During the 1930's this policy was a piece of legislation that kicked off the process of taking care of the masses of poor. Of course over time this began to be tugged at once its policies etcetara were handed over to the states to deal with and also when different presidents were in place to insert their ideologies about welfare into the law,"Providing welfare benefits has been controversial throughout U.S. history. Since the colonial period, government welfare policy has reflected the belief that the indigent are responsible for their poverty, leading to the principle

These state efforts paved the way for radical changes in federal welfare law. On August 22, 1996, President bill clinton, a Democrat, signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (popularly known as the Welfare Reform Act), a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. The act eliminated some federal welfare programs, placed permanent ceilings on the amount of federal funding for welfare, and gave each state a block grant of money to help run its own welfare programs. The law also directs each state legislature to come up with a new welfare plan that meets new federal criteria. Under the 1996 law, federal funds can be used to provide a total of only five years of aid in a lifetime to a family. In the early 2000s, Congress continued to debate the reauthorization of the 1996 law. Proponents of the law pronounced the reform effort a great success. States had met the requirement of halving their welfare rolls by 2002. In addition, many former welfare recipients had entered the workforce and child poverty had been reduced for the first time since the early

This initiative, coupled with a Medicaid proposal that would give block grants to the states for managing health care services for indigent persons, faced an uncertain fate in Congress" (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Welfare.aspx). ADDITIONALLY, according to the text and other sources this began to change with the introduction of the Welfare Reform Act....."Until the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, the federal government financed the three major welfare programs in the United States under the social security act of 1935 (42 U.S.C.A. § 301 et seq.): Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The 1996 law abolished the AFDC program. These types of assistance are in addition to the benefits available to the aged, disabled, and unemployed workers and their dependents. They are distributed to people who demonstrate financial need" (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Welfare.aspx). As different US leaders have come and gone, the policies have been adjusted according to their interest/ideal methods of assisting the needy.