Catherwood LibraryILR School

Bolstered by the new Republican majority in the Senate and a reinforced majority in the House, President Bush is once again pushing for welfare law changes condemned as fatally flawed by thirty-eight governors, twenty-one of them Republicans (see WIT for April 4, 2002). Citing fifty-percent decreases in welfare rolls since 1996, Mr. Bush has argued that states can easily afford to provide the extra day care and other services needed to help those on welfare meet the forty-hour work-week requirements set forth in his proposal that holds federal funding at 1996 levels. Already facing hard choices on service cuts due to budget deficits, state officials have joined human rights groups in showing up such fundamental flaws in Bush's arguments as increasing welfare rolls in the wake of September 11, 2001, and the fact that past welfare roll reductions have increased, not decreased, the need for assistance to help families stay off welfare.