Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

Long title	An Act To provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 201(a)(1) of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1997
Acronyms (colloquial)	PRWORA
Enacted by	the 104th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 104–193 (text) (PDF)
Statutes at Large	110 Stat. 2105
Codification
Titles amended	Title 42—The Public Health and Welfare
U.S.C. sections created	42 U.S.C. § 604a 42 U.S.C. § 608a
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3734 by John Kasich (R–OH) on June 27, 1996 Committee consideration by House Budget Passed the House on July 18, 1996 (256–170) Passed the Senate on July 23, 1996 (74–24, in lieu of S. 1956) Reported by the joint conference committee on July 30, 1996; agreed to by the House on July 31, 1996 (328–101) and by the Senate on August 1, 1996 (78–21) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 22, 1996

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The bill implemented major changes to U.S. social welfare policy, replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The law was a cornerstone of the Republican Party's "Contract with America", and also fulfilled Clinton's campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it". AFDC had come under increasing criticism in the 1980s, especially from conservatives who argued that welfare recipients were "trapped in a cycle of poverty". After the 1994 elections, the Republican-controlled Congress passed two major bills designed to reform welfare, but they were vetoed by Clinton. After negotiations between Clinton and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Congress passed PRWORA, and Clinton signed the bill into law on August 22, 1996.

PRWORA granted states greater latitude in administering social welfare programs, and implemented new requirements on welfare recipients, including a five-year lifetime limit on benefits. After the passage of the law, the number of individuals receiving federal welfare dramatically declined. The law was heralded as a "re-assertion of America's work ethic" by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, largely in response to the bill's workfare component.