This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

Date: Saturday, July 5, 1997
WHITE HOUSE FACT SHEET
Contact:  ACF Press Office  (202) 401-9215

Overview: Today, in his weekly radio address to the nation, President Clinton announced new data showing that welfare caseloads have declined by more than 3.1 million or 22% since he took office in January 1993. The President also marked the July 1 implementation of the historic welfare reform law he signed last year, announcing that all states now have been certified to move forward with their plans to move more people from welfare to work. In celebration of Independence Day, he urged all Americans to do even more to fulfill the promise of welfare reform and help welfare recipients achieve self-sufficiency.

Moving Forward on the Promise of Welfare Reform

On July 1 the historic welfare law that the President signed last August went in to effect in every state, making work and responsibility the law of the land. As the President announced today, the Department of Health and Human Services has certified welfare plans for each state. In accordance with the welfare law, all plans require and reward work, impose time limits, and demand personal responsibility.

Even before welfare reform many states were well on there way to changing their welfare programs to jobs programs. By waiving certain provisions in federal statutes, the Clinton Administration allowed 43 states -- more than all previous Administrations combined -- to require work, time-limit assistance, make work pay, improve child support enforcement, and encourage parental responsibility. Nearly 90 percent of states have chosen to continue or build on their welfare demonstration project approved by the Clinton Administration.

Largest Caseload Decline in History

According to the latest welfare caseload statistics released by the President today, great progress has already been made in moving people from welfare to self-sufficiency. The welfare caseload fell by 3.1 million recipients from 14.1 million recipients in January 1993 to just below 11 million in April 1997, a drop of 22% since President Clinton took office. Forty-seven out of fifty states have seen their caseloads decline, 30 by more than 25 percent. This is the largest welfare caseload decline in history and the lowest percentage of the population on welfare since 1970.

In May, the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) issued a report to explain some of the reasons for the dramatic decline in the welfare caseload during the last four years. According to CEA's analysis, over 40 percent of the reduction in the welfare rolls can be attributed to the strong economic growth during the Clinton Administration, nearly one-third can be attributed to waivers granted to states to test innovative strategies to move people from welfare to work, and the rest is attributed to other factors, which may include the Administration's expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, strengthened child support enforcement, and increased funding for child care.

Maintaining the Commitment to Make Welfare Reform Work

The President has pledged to make welfare reform a success and help move a million people on welfare into the workforce by the year 2000. The balanced budget agreement includes the $3.6 billion that the President requested to help cities and states create and subsidize jobs for the hardest to employ welfare recipients and to provide tax credits and other incentives for businesses that hire people off welfare.

In addition, the President has enlisted the business community's leadership in welfare reform. At the President's urging, the Welfare to Work Partnership, chaired by United Airlines CEO Gerald Greenwald, was launched in May to lead the national business effort to hire people from the welfare rolls. To help former welfare recipients stay in the workforce and succeed, the Vice President has created a coalition of civic groups committed to helping people retain jobs. The Vice President is also overseeing the federal government's hiring initiative, in which under the President's direction, Federal agencies have committed to directly hire at least 10,000 welfare recipients in the next four years.