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$2.00 a Day: the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
Page 27 of the book "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America" by Edin and Shaefer outlines the specifics of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as PRWORA. This federal welfare reform policy was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 22, 1996. '''

History
''' Prior to the bill being signed into law, there was opposition by child advocates and a respected analyst from the president's own administration that the bill would send more than one million children into poverty.

Details of the 1996 PRWORA

 * The bill ended AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) in favor of a new program that imposed a lifetime limit of five years for the receipt of benefits, and the newly limited nature of the replacement program was reinforced by calling AFDC's successor Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
 * Designed as a block grant, the new program gave states much more latitude in how they spent the money from the federal government than AFDC allowed. While the federal government imposed a five year limit on benefits using federal funds, states were free to impose even shorter time limits, and some of them did so. Federal requirements ensured some measure of uniformity across states, but the block grant approach led individual states to distribute federal money in different ways.
 * The legislation slashed cash and non-cash benefits for immigrants. A lesser known provision of PRWORA made immigrants entering the United States ineligible for federal welfare funds for five years after arriving in the United States. In light of the restrictions to federal funding under the law, states were allowed to grant aid out of their own funds to address the welfare needs of immigrants.
 * It increased funding for child care subsidies for recipients who found jobs and for otherwise eligible families, but there was no back-stop for those who couldn't find work in the private sector. Nor was there much in the way of additional dollars for education and training.