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House Approves Resolution Expressing Support for Welfare Reform

On July 10, the House approved, by voice vote, a resolution (H. Con. Res. 438) to express support for welfare programs established under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)(P.L. 104-193).

The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL), contains a number of findings regarding the effects of welfare reform on child poverty, including:

  • single mothers, on average, earned $13.50 per hour in 2004, almost three times the minimum wage;
  • the increases have been particularly large for the bottom two income quintiles, that is, those women who are most likely to be former or current welfare recipients;
  • since the enactment of welfare reform, the number of children in the U.S. has grown from 69 million in 1995 to 73 million in 2004, yet 1.4 million fewer children were living in poverty in 2004 than in 1995 — a 14 percent decline in overall child poverty; and
  • the poverty rates for African American and Hispanic children also have declined remarkably — 20 percent and 28 percent, respectively, since 1995.The legislation also includes the following findings on the incidence of teen pregnancy:
  • the birth rate to teenagers declined 30 percent from its high in 1991 to 2004. The 2004 teenage birth rate of 41.2 per 1,000 women aged 15 through 19 is the lowest recorded birth rate for teenagers since 1940; and
  • the birth rate for women aged 15 through 17 declined 43 percent since 1991, the rate for women aged 18 and 19 declined 26 percent, and the rate for African American teens — until recently the highest — declined the most–falling 47 percent from 1991 through 2004.In addition, the resolution contains a section on child support:
  • child support collections have grown every year, increasing from $12 billion in FY1996 to over $22 billion in FY2004;
  • the number of paternities established or acknowledged in FY2003 — over 1.6 million — includes an almost 300 percent increase in paternities established through in-hospital acknowledgement programs promoted by PRWORA;
  • child support collections were made in nearly 8.1 million cases in FY2004, significantly more than the almost 4 million cases in which a collection was made in 1996.Finally, the legislation acknowledges that there are still advancements to be made, particularly surrounding marriage:
  • in 2002, 34 percent of all births in the U.S. were to unmarried women;
  • despite recent progress in reducing teen pregnancy in general, with fewer teens entering marriage, the proportion of births to unmarried teens has increased dramatically to 80 percent in 2002 from 30 percent in 1970;
  • the well-documented negative consequences of single parent households include increased likelihood of welfare dependency, increased risks of low birth weight, poor cognitive development, child abuse and neglect, teen parenthood, and decreased likelihood of having an intact marriage during adulthood, and these outcomes result despite the often heroic struggles of mostly single mothers to care for their families;
  • despite the strenuous efforts of single mothers to care for their children, a child living with a single mother is nearly five times as likely to be poor as a child living in a married-couple family; and
  • in 2003, in married-couple families, the child poverty rate was 8.6 percent: in households headed by a single mother the poverty rate was 41.7 percent.Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA) spoke in favor of the resolution, saying: “Back in 1996, welfare reform opponents argued that if enacted, this law would result in millions of additional children living in poverty. However, they were wrong with this prediction as they were with all their other predictions about what this law would accomplish. Compared to 1996, 1.4 million fewer children are in poverty today. This is a direct result of the pro-work, pro-family policies passed in 1996 and which are still in place today.”

    Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) disagreed, saying: “This resolution, looking at a ten year window, ignores the disturbing trends of the last five years during the Bush Republican Presidency. Total poverty has increased for four consecutive years, and more than 37 million people are living in poverty today. Child poverty has been on the rise for five straight years, and 13 million children are struggling in poverty today.” He continued, addressing Rep. Shaw directly: “What is it, sir, that you don’t understand about the word ‘failure’? Instead of engaging in this political public relations charade, we should be working on a bipartisan basis to confront realities of poverty in this country.”