The President released his Welfare Reform Agenda last week and with it came much concern from those who are currently working to ensure that changes are made to the 1996 welfare reform law to address the needs of those who are working (currently defined as a success under the 1996 welfare reform law measurement) but are still unable to provide for the basic needs of their families.

Under the President’s proposal, the program’s work requirement will increase from 50% to 70% by 2007; the plan also increases the minimum number of hours spent at a job or in a program “designed to help achieve independence” to 40 per week; $300 million will be directed to programs that “encourage healthy, stable marriages;” new waiver authority to states that will enable them to fine tune a welfare program to meet local needs. The President’s plan continues the 1996 ban on welfare benefits to non-citizens who entered the US after 1996 and creates a 5-year waiting period before documented immigrants become eligible for food stamps.

For a more detailed analysis of the President’s proposal and alternatives, see:

• Coalition on Human Needs’ “Welfare Reauthorization Policy Recommendations”
  
  
• CBPP’s “Administration's Tanf Proposals Would Limit -- Not Increase -- State Flexibility”
  
  
• NETWORK’s “Response to President Bush’s Proposal for Welfare Reform”