In 1988, President Reagan signed the Family Support Act - the most sweeping revision of the AFDC welfare program since it was first created in 1935. The Family Support Act created work requirements for AFDC recipients and made both parents financially responsible for their children. President Ronald Reagan saw it as a way to transform the welfare system from a poverty trap into the first rung on America's ladder of opportunity.
By 1987, the White House, the Senate and the House each had produced proposals to reform welfare. Eventually a compromise, viewed as a watered-down version capturing only some of what either liberals and conservatives wanted was passed in both the House and the Senate. The Reagan administration had capitulated on almost every provision except for the cost of the bill and the "workfare" provisions. On October 13, 1988 the Family Support Act became law requiring parental responsibility and workfare on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) welfare recipients. The Family Support Act brought together and expanded many of the President Reagan's 1981 welfare changes including employment training and support services. In addition, the act, stipulated that parents must be financially responsible for their children, allowing the state to withhold the wages of absent fathers as a means of collecting child support. The act stipulated that for a state to receive federal matching funds, a state had to operate a Jobs Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program to provide training and work assistance for ADFC recipients.
The Family Support Act went into effect in October of 1990. Opponents of the bill called it an assault against poor mothers who would be forced to leave their homes during the most precious years of child rearing. One of the major weaknesses of the bill was that it failed to provide high-quality substitute child care. Opponents also pointed out that the program failed to recognize societal defects including racism that contributed to the dependency on welfare programs. Proponents of the bill argued that it put federal muscle behind attempts to make both parents responsible for the well-being of the children. In addition to enforcing child support payments, the act provided funding to states to both establish paternity and locate missing parents.
In President Reagan's 1988 State of the Union Address, he urged Congress to get the Family Support Act passed and previewed his support for both more effective enforcement of child support and "workfare" requirements.
"My friends, some years ago, the Federal Government declared war on poverty, and poverty won. [Laughter] Today the Federal Government has 59 major welfare programs and spends more than $100 billion a year on them. What has all this money done? Well, too often it has only made poverty harder to escape. Federal welfare programs have created a massive social problem. With the best of intentions, government created a poverty trap that wreaks havoc on the very support system the poor need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family. Dependency has become the one enduring heirloom, passed from one generation to the next, of too many fragmented families.
It is time—this may be the most radical thing I've said in 7 years in this office—it's time for Washington to show a little humility. There are a thousand sparks of genius in 50 States and a thousand communities around the Nation. It is time to nurture them and see which ones can catch fire and become guiding lights. States have begun to show us the way. They've demonstrated that successful welfare programs can be built around more effective child support enforcement practices and innovative programs requiring welfare recipients to work or prepare for work. Let us give the States more flexibility and encourage more reforms. Let's start making our welfare system the first rung on America's ladder of opportunity, a boost up from dependency, not a graveyard but a birthplace of hope."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Address Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-congress-the-state-the-union-0 [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
Irp.wisc.edu. (2019). The Family Support Act of 1988. [online] Available at: https://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc114e.pdf [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
Latimes.com. (2019). Los Angeles Times - Page unavailable in your region. [online] Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-14-mn-4042-story.html [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
Latimes.com. (2019). Los Angeles Times - Page unavailable in your region. [online] Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-14-mn-4042-story.html [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
Static.cambridge.org. (1998). US Social Welfare Policy: The Reagan Record and Legacy. [online] Available at: https://static.cambridge.org/resource/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20170221045142472-0190:S0047279497005187:S004727949700518Xa.pdf [Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
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