Congress is again debating how to promote work in the context of programs to aid poor and low-income people and families, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) and federal rental housing assistance programs (public housing and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program). A number of factors have combined to heighten Congress's interest in this topic. Concerns have been expressed about continued "dependency" of families on government assistance as well as the amount of federal spending on these programs, work disincentives inherent in program design, and the effectiveness of our current social safety net in adequately addressing poverty. The last major debate over the role of work in social assistance programs culminated in the 1996 welfare reform law (the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, P.L. 104-193 ), which created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Policies enacted in the 1990s, including those in the welfare reform law, focused on assistance for low-income families with children, particularly those headed by single mothers, and reduced the availability of assistance for families without workers, but expanded aid to low-income families with wage earners. Following enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law, the number of families with children receiving cash assistance declined dramatically, employment of single mothers increased, and poverty among children declined. However, in the 2000s—even before the onset of the 2007-2009 recession—some of these gains were eroded and even reversed. Overall, household incomes were relatively stagnant during the decade, and the economic circumstances of some populations (e.g., poor men with low levels of educational attainment) continued to deteriorate. The House Budget Committee, in reporting the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget ( H.Con.Res. 25 ) for FY2014, called for creating work participation standards in SNAP. It also called for reforms of need-tested assistance programs in general, by devolving them to the states and with the goal of building on the welfare reforms of the 1990s. Work requirements for SNAP were part of the 2014 "Farm Bill" debate ( P.L. 113-79 , Agricultural Act of 2014); ultimately Congress retained existing SNAP work rules but required and funded up to 10 pilot projects to test alternative employment and training strategies, including some features similar to those of TANF work programs. This report focuses on work requirement, time limit, and work incentive policies in three programs: the TANF block grant, SNAP, and housing assistance programs. TANF is sometimes touted as a model program with work requirements and time limits that can be applied to other low-income aid programs. However, as will be explored in this report, its policies and lessons are complicated and may not be fully applicable to other social assistance programs. Thus, policy makers considering expanding these policies face a number of considerations, which are discussed later in this report. Government benefit programs help families and individuals avoid destitution and provide a measure of economic security for them. The generosity of such benefits, and the terms and conditions placed on their receipt, can also affect labor markets, by potentially affecting participation in the labor force as well as the wages for which workers are willing to accept employment. Work is a central feature of government benefit programs in the United States. The largest benefit programs are social insurance programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance, which provide benefits earned through work in covered employment. Low-income assistance programs—with benefits based on financial need, not past work—also can affect participation in the workforce, particularly for those who can command only low wages. In order to understand the current set of policies in TANF, SNAP and federal rental housing assistance, it is useful to be familiar with the rationales for work-related requirement and incentive policies, including time limits, in social assistance programs. Four primary rationales for such policies have historically been put forth: offsetting work disincentives inherent in social assistance programs; promoting a culture of work rather than one of dependency; rationing scarce taxpayer dollars to the truly needy; and combating poverty. One rationale for work incentives and requirements in government assistance programs has been to combat the work disincentives inherent in means-tested benefit programs. Some argue that assistance programs allow individuals and families to consume goods and services independent of work, lessening the pressure to search for employment and go to work. Additionally, benefits based on need usually are reduced by some amount as an individual's earnings increase, eventually ending when the individual, family or household is no longer financially needy under a program's rules. This means the individual faces a relatively high implicit "tax" rate, as part or all of a worker's increase in earnings is offset by a decrease in social assistance benefits. Empirical studies have generally confirmed that providing social assistance has a work disincentive, though the size of that disincentive has historically been in dispute. "Work requirements" counteract the work disincentives of government benefits by requiring a recipient to engage in a labor market-related activity—rather than nonmarket activity, such as homemaking, child-rearing or leisure—as a condition of receiving government benefits. That is, they create a mandated activity, which may potentially be non-paid (e.g., job search), that affects the decision of individuals to work or accept a job offer. Failure to engage in that mandated activity can result in a reduction or end of the government benefit. "Work incentives" are a set of policies designed to reduce the high implicit "tax rate" on earnings inherent in low-income assistance programs. They usually take the form of disregarding a portion of a recipient's earnings ("earnings disregards") in determining means-tested eligibility and benefits. Another rationale for work requirements or incentives involves the centrality of work to the nation's economic and social organization. Work is a social norm that the work disincentives inherent in means-tested programs might undermine. The argument has been made that if the social norm of work is not reinforced, an alternative norm of dependency on government programs can take its place. "Dependency" on government programs implies an inability to function in society without government assistance. This dysfunction can lead to behaviors beyond simply responding to economic incentives and disincentives. Dependency has historically been discussed in conjunction with other social ills such as out-of-wedlock births, crime, and drug abuse. Thus, by counteracting work disincentives inherent in social programs, work incentives and requirements may promote a culture of work rather than a culture of dependency. Time-limiting public benefits is one way policymakers may choose to address concerns about dependency. Another is by supporting, encouraging, or requiring families to increase their work effort, so that their incomes increase and they are no longer in need of public benefits. A third rationale involves a desire to effectively distribute scarce federal resources. Time limit and work requirement or incentive policies that move families out of federal assistance can free up federal resources for other priorities. The requirement to be engaged in an activity imposes a "time cost" on benefit receipt, and for some individuals, the value of the benefit may not exceed the cost of having to engage in a work or job preparation activity. It has been argued that work requirements "screen" out those not in true need of benefits, limiting benefits to those who have little alternative. In the case of housing assistance programs, the concern is more acute because the programs are only funded at a level sufficient to serve roughly one in four eligible families. Therefore, in most communities, there are very long waiting lists for assistance. New families can be assisted, generally, only when currently-assisted families leave the program. TANF block grant funds are capped, and states (rather than the federal government) have the incentive to minimize their cash assistance caseloads to permit them to spend their funds on other benefits and services. While SNAP funding is not capped, the argument has been made that federal tax dollars are scarce and aid should only be prioritized for those who are truly needy. In most cases, without income from work, a person and his or her family members are almost certain to be poor. Almost all persons who are not poor are in families who either have a worker or receive work-related benefits. Reliance solely on means-tested benefits almost always relegates a person and his or her family to poverty. Thus, a rationale for requiring or incentivizing work in social assistance programs is to promote what is effectively the only route out of poverty for a family. However, as is explored later in this report, while work is almost always necessary for a family to advance out of poverty, it is not always sufficient without other income supports, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. A review of the legislative histories of cash, food (food stamps, in particular), and housing assistance, illustrates the different ways that beneficiaries' employment status and employment services became an issue for the programs. Furthermore, as each program has different authorizing statutes (reauthorized or extended at different intervals), authorizing committees and appropriating subcommittees, and political stakeholders, it may be challenging to coordinate the work-related policies among the programs and assure that all consider current economic needs and research findings. The federal role in providing cash assistance to the needy dates to the Social Security Act of 1935 (P.L. 74-271), which created both social insurance programs to provide protection against old age and unemployment as well as federal grants to help states pay public assistance benefits for the aged, blind, and needy families with children. The public assistance programs provided benefits based on financial need and only to those categories of the poor considered by policymakers at the time as not expected to work. For needy families with children, benefits were provided to permit mothers to stay home and raise children through the Aid to Dependent Children program, later renamed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).