109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 438
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the Congress that continu-
ation of the welfare reforms provided for in the 
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
Reconciliation Act of 1996 should remain a pri-
ority.
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 438
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 
(TANF) program established by the Personal Responsi-
bility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 
(Public Law 104–193) has succeeded in moving families 
from welfare to work and reducing child poverty; 
Whereas there has been a dramatic increase in the employ-
ment of current and former welfare recipients;
•HCON 438 EH 
Whereas the percentage of working recipients reached an all-
time high in fiscal year 1999 and held steady in fiscal 
years 2000 and 2001; 
Whereas, in fiscal year 2004, 32 percent of adult recipients 
were counted as meeting TANF work participation re-
quirements, significantly above pre-reform levels; 
Whereas earnings for welfare recipients remaining on the 
rolls also have increased significantly, as have earnings 
for female-headed households; 
Whereas single mothers, on average, earned $13.50 per hour 
in 2004, almost three times the minimum wage; 
Whereas the increases have been particularly large for the 
bottom 2 income quintiles, that is, those women who are 
most likely to be former or current welfare recipients; 
Whereas welfare dependency has plummeted; 
Whereas, as of September 2005, 1,887,855 families, includ-
ing 4,443,170 individuals, were receiving TANF assist-
ance, and accordingly, the number of families in the wel-
fare caseload and the number of individuals receiving 
cash assistance declined 56 percent and 61 percent, re-
spectively, since the enactment of the TANF program; 
Whereas, since the enactment of welfare reform, the number 
of children in the United States has grown from 
69,000,000 in 1995 to 73,000,000 in 2004, which is an 
increase of 4,000,000, yet 1,400,000 fewer children were 
living in poverty in 2004 than in 1995—a 14 percent de-
cline in overall child poverty; 
Whereas the poverty rates for African-American and His-
panic children also have declined remarkably—20 percent 
and 28 percent, respectively, since 1995;
•HCON 438 EH 
Whereas, as a Nation, we have made substantial progress in 
reducing teen pregnancies and births, slowing increases 
in non-marital childbearing, and improving child support 
collections and paternity establishment; 
Whereas the birth rate to teenagers declined 30 percent from 
its high in 1991 to 2004. The 2004 teenage birth rate 
of 41.2 per 1,000 women aged 15 through 19 is the low-
est recorded birth rate for teenagers since 1940; 
Whereas, during the period from 1991 through 2001, teenage 
birth rates fell in all States and the District of Columbia, 
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands; 
Whereas such declines also have spanned age, racial, and eth-
nic groups; 
Whereas there has been success in lowering the birth rate for 
both younger and older teens; 
Whereas the birth rate for those aged 15 through 17 declined 
43 percent since 1991, the rate for those aged 18 and 
19 declined 26 percent, and the rate for African Amer-
ican teens—until recently the highest—declined the 
most—falling 47 percent from 1991 through 2004; 
Whereas, since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility 
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, child 
support collections within the child support enforcement 
system 
have 
grown 
every 
year, 
increasing 
from 
$12,000,000,000 
in 
fiscal 
year 
1996 
to 
over 
$22,000,000,000 in fiscal year 2004; 
Whereas the number of paternities established or acknowl-
edged in fiscal year 2003—over 1,600,000—includes an 
almost 300 percent increase in paternities established 
through in-hospital acknowledgement programs promoted 
by the 1996 welfare reforms, and there were almost
•HCON 438 EH 
915,000 paternities established this way in 2004 com-
pared to 324,652 in 1996; 
Whereas child support collections were made in nearly 
8,100,000 cases in fiscal year 2004, significantly more 
than the almost 4,000,000 cases in which a collection was 
made in 1996; 
Whereas the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
Reconciliation Act of 1996 gave States great flexibility in 
the use of Federal funds to develop innovative programs 
to help families leave welfare and begin employment, and 
to encourage the formation of 2-parent families; 
Whereas annual Federal funding for under the new TANF 
block grant program have been held constant at the all-
time highs set in 1995, despite unprecedented welfare 
caseload declines and despite the fact that States may 
spend as little as 75 percent as much as they spent 
spending under the prior AFDC program; 
Whereas total welfare and child care funds available per fam-
ily increased over 130 percent between 1995 and 2004, 
from $6,934 to $16,185; 
Whereas child care expenditures have quadrupled under wel-
fare reform, rising from $3,000,000,000 in 1995 to 
$12,000,000,000 in 2004; 
Whereas, under the TANF program, States have enjoyed sig-
nificant new flexibility in making policy choices and in-
vestment decisions best suited to the needs of their citi-
zens; 
Whereas, despite all of these successes, there is still progress 
to be made; 
Whereas significant numbers of welfare recipients still are 
not engaged in employment-related activities;
•HCON 438 EH 
Whereas, while all States have met the overall work participa-
tion rates required by law, in an average month, only 41 
percent of all TANF families with an adult participated 
in work activities for even a single hour that was count-
able toward the State’s work participation rate; 
Whereas, in 2002, 34 percent of all births in the United 
States were to unmarried women; 
Whereas, despite recent progress in reducing teen pregnancy 
in general, with fewer teens entering marriage, the pro-
portion of births to unmarried teens has increased dra-
matically to 80 percent in 2002 from 30 percent in 1970; 
Whereas the negative consequences of out-of-wedlock birth on 
the mother, the child, the family, and society are well 
documented; 
Whereas the negative consequences include increased likeli-
hood of welfare dependency, increased risks of low birth 
weight, poor cognitive development, child abuse and ne-
glect, teen parenthood, and decreased likelihood of having 
an intact marriage during adulthood, and these outcomes 
result despite the often heroic struggles of mostly single 
mothers to care for their families; 
Whereas there has been a dramatic rise in cohabitation as 
marriages have declined; 
Whereas an estimated 40 percent of children are expected to 
live in a cohabiting-parent family at some point during 
their childhood; 
Whereas children in single-parent households and cohabiting-
parent households are at much higher risk of child abuse 
than children in intact married families; 
Whereas children who live apart from their biological fathers 
are, on average, more likely to be poor, experience edu-
•HCON 438 EH 
cational, health, emotional, and psychological problems, 
be victims of child abuse, engage in criminal behavior, 
and become involved with the juvenile justice system than 
their peers who live with their married, biological mother 
and father; 
Whereas, despite the strenuous efforts of single mothers to 
care for their children, a child living with a single mother 
is nearly 5 times as likely to be poor as a child living in 
a married-couple family; and 
Whereas, in 2003, in married-couple families, the child pov-
erty rate was 8.6 percent: in households headed by a sin-
gle mother the poverty rate was 41.7 percent: Now, 
therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that in-
creasing success in moving families from welfare to work, 
as well as in promoting healthy marriage and other means 
of improving child well-being, as promoted by the welfare 
reforms in the Personal Responsibility and Work Oppor-
tunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, are very important Gov-
ernment interests and should remain priorities for the re-
sponsible Federal and State agencies in the years ahead
•HCON 438 EH 
for assisting needy families and others at risk of poverty 
and dependence on government benefits.
Passed the House of Representatives July 18, 2006. 
Attest:
Clerk.