Understanding Welfare Reduction in the United States:

The purpose of this study is to understand welfare reduction in the United States. Previous studies have focused on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, and treated the enactment as a primary factor that led welfare policy change. It is true that the reform is important for welfare policy because it started the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). However, little is known about welfare reduction programs implemented by State governments despite the fact that more than 48% of AFDC recipients were under those programs in 1995. Therefore, the objective of this article is to show the reason why State governments began to conduct their own welfare reduction programs. In addition, this study also attempts to explain why the number of such programs increased, and to demonstrate why the scale of such programs became larger and larger. This article focuses on the Section 1115 of the Social Security Act (Waiver Authority). Basically, State governments did not have flexibility in establishing eligibility requirements. Waiver Authority is the exception that gave States flexibility in establishing eligibility requirements. Using archival materials from presidential libraries, this study will explain critical juncture that determines state-level welfare policy change.