This issue discusses New Jersey s relative success in absorbing its large immigrant population may provide helpful pointers for the federal government and for other state and local governments struggling to cope with increasing numbers of foreign-born newcomers. 24 March 1997. At a time when both political parties agree on the need for prudent spending and fiscal balance, a distinguished panel of economists at the Urban Institute's Eighth Annual Roundtable on the Budget and the Economy concurred that the president's FY 1998 budget was more a negotiating document than a strategic economic plan. Welfare Reform and the Changing Role of Federal Agencies, Issue No. 23 November 1996.
Welfare reform is now on the books.
States now will have primary responsibility for helping poor children and families, and will be able to design programs with fewer strings attached to the federal money they receive. While there are new limits on benefits and services that can be paid with federal money, states have new opportunities to creatively meet their vastly expanded responsibilities. Health Reform and Its Implications for Employers, Issue No. 21 May 1996. The issue of health reform, its implications for employers, and the legislative proposals under discussion to resolve them, were the subject of a recent meeting of the Urban Institute Corporate Advisory Committee with panelists including John Holahan, director of the Institute's Health Policy Center, principal research associate Stephen Zuckerman, and G. Lawrence Atkins, senior vice president for government relations of the Jefferson Group.