The Changing Face of Welfare during the Bush Administration

Most scholars of American social policy do not associate significant change in welfare policy with the presidential administration of George W. Bush. No major welfare policy initiatives were passed during the first term of the Bush presidency. Welfare cash assistance caseloads have remained fairly constant since 2001. Block grant funding for state welfare programs has remained at $16.5 billion annually. The poverty rate has increased from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.6 percent in 2005, but the number of persons in poverty remains below the historic highs of the early 1990s (U.S. Census Bureau 2006b).1 Compared to the War on Terror, tax cuts, budget deficits, and Medicare drug coverage, welfare and poverty simply have not been prominent issues in the minds of the public or many policymakers.2 In fact, references to contemporary welfare reform are often associated with the Clinton administration. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), commonly referred to as welfare reform, was a key domestic policy achievement for the Clinton administration an