THE 2010 REAUTHORIZATION OF WELFARE REFORM COULD RESULT IN IMPORTANT CHANGES

The welfare reform law of 1996 is widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of social legislation since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s. Although the 1996 law is known primarily for its radical reforms designed to help, cajole, or force welfare mothers to seek self sufficiency through work, there were important changes in several other means-tested programs as well. 1 These included reorganization and expansion of child care programs, termination of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for drug addicts and alcoholics, tightening of the definition of disability for children on SSI, sweeping reforms in the child support enforcement program, major restrictions on means-tested benefits for noncitizens, creation of an abstinence education program, and others. Most of these provisions of law are scheduled to be reauthorized by Congress in 2010. My purpose here is to discuss, based primarily on interviews with officials, advocates, and scholars who are well acquainted with the politics of welfare reform, what actions Congress seems likely to take during reauthorization. This reauthorization is of great importance because it will be the first reauthorization conducted when Democrats, many of whom were strongly opposed to the 1996 reforms, 2 have control of Congress and the presidency since the reforms were enacted.