Analysis of Current U.S. Congressional Debate Over the Family Security Act

Woody Following a lengthy and protracted debate, the 100th U.S. Congress passed PL 100-485, the Family Security Act of 1988, the first major public assistance legislative reform package since passage of the Social Security Act of the late 1930s. The debate over wel-fare is a long and continuing one which is not ex-pected to end with the current reform. This article presents a brief review of competing perspectives on current legislative reforms related to current law. It does not attempt to tackle the more fundamental de-bate over the validity or the objectives of welfare, nor does it tackle the complex set of issues related to income distribution. Many forces framed congres-sional debate during the past decade. Pressures wer