Federal Assistance Programs Research Articles

Federal Policy for Preserving Farmland: The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program

Since 1996, the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA, has been the federal government’s chief policy for preventing the urban development of agricultural lands. The program helps state and local governments and nonprofit conservation organizations to fund the purchase of easements on privately owned farms and ranches, permanently preventing development. How the FRPP has dealt with a complex intergovernmental delivery network is the theme of this article. Examining the program’s participation requirements and funding patterns, we find that the FRPP operates differently from other federal assistance programs. In its short history, it has pursued an intergovernmental strategy of accommodating state and local interests while vigorously retaining core agency values and centralized control.

The Great Social Security Debate

Social security is the largest US federal program and the most enduring legacy of the New Deal. The program has more than 50 million beneficiaries and generates expenditures (US$585 billion in 2007) that are significantly higher than the defence budget.1 Known as the third rail of American politics (touch it and die), social security is a popular program, which means that few politicians explicitly seek to dismantle it. Yet, because of the demographic challenge ahead, some changes are necessary to fix the anticipated long-term fiscal imbalance in social security. The current debate on social security is about the nature of the changes necessary to solve the long-term fiscal challenge stemming from demographic aging. This brief article explores the debate on the future of social security, with a focus on the Bush years (2001-09) and the ideas put forward by Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITYThe modern pension system in the United States took shape during the New Deal and the post-World War II era. This system is divided into four main parts: federal old-age, survivors, and disability insurance - a centralized earnings-related scheme that covers more than 95 percent of the workforce; supplemental security income - a means-tested federal assistance program offering modest benefits to poor, disabled, and elderly citizens; voluntary, tax-subsidized private pension plans (defined-benefit and definedcontribution schemes included); and personal savings and tax-subsidized individual retirement accounts.Adopted in 1935 as a key element of the social security act, old-age, survivor, and disability insurance is widely known as social security. Now the largest social program in the United States, social security expanded in the postwar era, especially during the Nixon presidency (1969-74). In the mid1970s, the economic downturn triggered by the first oil crisis and the overly generous indexation system implemented in 1974 created the first major fiscal crisis in social security. As a response, the Carter administration sponsored the enactment of the 1977 amendments to the social security act, which raised the payroll tax and changed the indexation formula in order to reduce the anticipated benefits of future retirees. Because the 1977 amendments failed to truly solve the fiscal crisis, in 1983 congress adopted a set of seemingly technical changes aimed at solving the new fiscal crisis in social security. During the legislative process, a rise in the retirement age from 65 to 67 taking place incrementally between the years 2000 and 2022 was added to the bill, inspired by the report of a bipartisan commission on social security that President Reagan had created two years earlier. Overall, the 1983 legislation preserved the basic characteristics of the program, which remained a defined-benefit scheme.2During the 1990s, actuarial previsions became more favourable as economic growth boosted the trust fund's reserves. According to the current actuarial projections, this trust fund should accumulate surpluses until the early 2010s. In the long run, however, population aging and the retirement of baby boomers would further increase the percentage of elderly people in the US. Compared with only 4.1 percent in 1900, this percentage should increase from 12.4 to 20 between 2000 and 2030.3 In such a context, expenditures should exceed revenues, thus eroding social security reserves. According to the 2008 trustees' report, the fund would face fiscal shortfalls in 2042.4 Although liberal policy experts argue that relatively technical changes could solve this long-term fiscal challenge, many conservatives have called for a major transformation of social security.5 Although there is no evidence that such a project would help address the long-term fiscal imbalance in the program, demographic fears concerning its future are central to the campaign in favour of social security privatization. …

Assessing the role of federal community assistance programs to develop biomass utilization capacity in the western United States

As forest biomass utilization becomes cost effective to harvest, more areas at risk of catastrophic wildfire can be thinned of dense brush and small diameter trees. In an effort to increase biomass utilization, the USDA Forest Service granted more than $36 million in National Fire Plan-Economic Action Program funds in the western United States during fiscal years 2001 to 2003. Interviews with program coordinators and grant recipients were used to characterize the types of investment strategies used and to assess accomplishments relative to national fuels reduction objectives. Findings include a strong emphasis on grants leveraging other funding sources, coordination of resources to increase utilization capacity, and the need for technical assistance to facilitate project design and implementation. We conclude that community assistance programs may help to create the type of utilization capacity necessary to reduce hazardous fuels, but that sustained progress will depend on synergistic activities on multiple fronts and improved demonstration of program accomplishments.

National Flood Insurance: Crisis and Renewal

While the magnitude of 2005's hurricane-related flood losses may have been improbable, the eventual bankruptcy of the NFIP was not. The program was never designed to charge full risk-based rates or to build the reserves necessary to meet its financial commitments. By failing to charge prices that reflect the value of the flood insurance in-force, the NFIP has been accumulating unfunded liabilities that eventually would have to be financed by taxpayers, and eventuality that has arrived. If the NFIP is to remain in operation without exposing taxpayers to undue burdens, then dramatic programmatic reforms are necessary. In the process of designing a sustainable NFIP, Congress should also look at other problems with the program, including its potential to induce commercial and residential development in areas prone to flooding, its low participation rates, and its often contradictory interaction with other federal disaster assistance programs. Specifically, Congress should phase out explicit subsidies, expand mandatory flood-insurance purchase requirements, grant FEMA more flexibility to increase NFIP rates, and investigate ways to increase property owners' compliance with mandatory purchase requirements.

Contraceptive knowledge and use among low-income Hispanic immigrant women and non-Hispanic women

Background With the rising influx of Hispanics to the United States, there is an ongoing need to promote health and wellness care to this non-English-speaking, minority population group. Programs, specifically developed to address the unique cultural mores of Hispanics, need to focus on increasing knowledge about health issues, particularly in the area of reproductive health. A study was conducted in Memphis, TN, to examine the differences between low-income Hispanic immigrants' and low-income non-Hispanics' (1) contraceptive use; (2) reproduction and contraception knowledge; as well as (3) the demographic and knowledge factors associated with their choice of contraceptive, in order to better formulate successful educational programs for area Hispanics. Study Design A cross-sectional survey of 226 women, recruited through a federal assistance program in Tennessee, was performed over a 5-month period in 2000 to 2001. Women, between the ages of 18 and 42, were individually interviewed to learn more about their reproduction knowledge and method of contraception. Results This study found that knowledge about reproduction and contraceptive use was significantly lower among Hispanics than non-Hispanics. Furthermore, contraceptive use was significantly lower among Hispanics than among non-Hispanics. Hispanics were less likely to use the oral contraceptive or have a tubal ligation, preferring injectable contraceptive. Non-Hispanics, who were more likely to use contraceptive methods, were less likely to use injectables, preferring the oral contraceptive. Among Hispanics, knowledge about contraceptives, number of children and marital status were associated with contraceptive use. Among non-Hispanics, only education was associated with contraceptive use. Conclusion Interventions targeting Hispanic immigrants should be developed to increase their knowledge about contraceptive methods.

The changing federal grant structure and its potential effects on state and local community development efforts

Changing political landscape often renews the call for dramatic changes to federal community and economic development grant-in-aid programs. The most dramatic proposal in recent years was President Bush’s 2006 call to consolidate federal assistance programs for communities into a new block grant known as the Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative (SACI). This conceptual study reviews key characteristics of intergovernmental transfers including grant types, features, changes in the intergovernmental fiscal environment, the fungibility/flypaper debate, and the symmetry/asymmetry response of governments to declining intergovernmental revenue. The effects of intergovernmental transfers on state and local governments are connected to differences in grant design features. Potential fallout from proposed or similar changes to grant structure is discussed using the SACI proposal as an example.

Next Steps for Federal Child Care Policy

In Mark Greenberg's view, a national child care strategy should pursue four goals. Every parent who needs child care to get or keep work should be able to afford care without having to leave children in unhealthy or dangerous environments; all families should be able to place their children in settings that foster education and healthy development; parental choice should be respected; and a set of good choices should be available. Attaining these goals, says Greenberg, requires revamping both federal child care subsidy programs and federal tax policy related to child care. Today subsidies are principally provided through a block grant structure in which states must restrict eligibility, access, or the extent of assistance because both federal and state funds are limited. Tax policy principally involves a modest nonrefundable credit that provides little or no assistance to poor and low-income families. Greenberg would replace the block grant with a federal guarantee of assistance for all families with incomes under 200 percent of poverty that need child care to enter or sustain employment. States would administer the federal assistance program under a federal-state matching formula with the federal government paying most of the cost. States would develop and implement plans to improve the quality of child care, coordinate child care with other early education programs, and ensure that child care payment rates are sufficient to allow families to obtain care that fosters healthy child development. Greenberg would also make the federal dependent care tax credit refundable, with the credit set at 50 percent of covered child care costs for the lowest-income families and gradually phasing down to 20 percent as family income increases. The combined subsidy and tax changes would lead to a better-coordinated system of child care subsidies that would assure substantial financial help to families below 200 percent of poverty, while tax-based help would ensure continued, albeit significantly reduced, assistance for families with higher incomes. Greenberg indicates that the tax credit expansions are estimated to cost about $5 billion a year, and the subsidy and quality expansions would cost about $18 billion a year.

Concerns Over the Allocation Methods Employed in the US Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is the largest federal energy assistance program in the United States and forms an important component of the social safety net for low-income households. The manner in which LIHEAP funds are allocated to states has been a contentious issue since the inception of the program. The distribution of funds among states is not proportionate to the need for assistance based on commonly accepted standards of fairness, with states in the Northeast and Midwest receiving more, and states in the South and West, less than they should. We derived and evaluated the formula by which states receive LIHEAP funding, and we found that unanticipated circumstances, not congressional intent, have perpetuated an inequitable distribution. In 1984, Congress corrected the formula it had hastily enacted in 1981 using a rational and equitable allocation system. It also added provisions, however, that prevented the improved system from being activated. As Congress considers future reauthorizations of LIHEAP, it has three options: to fully implement the intent of the 1984 reform of the program; to acknowledge that LIHEAP is primarily a heating-assistance program and adopt a heating-only formula to distribute LIHEAP funding; or to significantly increase LIHEAP funding. The history of LIHEAP appropriations does not imply that the reforms incorporated in the 1984 legislation should be thwarted; it implies that Congress should remove or reduce the legislative provisions that have produced the unintended result. Congress can fully implement the 1984 reform by removing the trigger appropriation or reducing the threshold to $1 billion or less.

Challenges Faced by Women with Disabilities Under TANF

SUMMARY A number of studies report the multiple problems facing women during the welfare reform transition. Within this group is a large number of single mothers struggling with both poverty and chronic health problems or disabilities. Those with these additional challenges might be expected to experience less success in moving out of poverty than those without these health challenges. In this study, we examine the progress of 178 women around the state of Wisconsin who were interviewed repeatedly about their experiences with welfare reform and poverty between 1997 and 2000, when the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program was being implemented. The incidence of health problems is related to level of education, and the type of disability has major impacts on expected outcome. Those with less education are more likely to suffer from health problems, especially mental health issues, depression and post-traumatic stress, which seem to be the most debilitating. These women also had difficulty accessing non-work support, such as Supplement Security Income (SSI), a federal assistance program for disabled persons with little or no income, or assistance from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), a federal and state program of assistance to promote the employment abilities of adults with disabilities.

The Making of a Colonial Welfare State

Early-twentieth-century Puerto Rican women’s and labor groups advocated for public support for economically needy groups to little avail, given the fiscal limitations of the early colonial state. The exclusion of Puerto Rico from the comprehensive social welfare embodied in the Social Security Act of 1935 was rooted in U.S. Congressional resistance to statehood for selected territories. The platform of the Partido Popular Democrático (Popular Democratic party—PPD), which merged elements of Puerto Rican nationalism with a foreign-investment-and-export-dependent development strategy, further distanced Puerto Ricans from participation in federal welfare programs. The PPD’s economic program yielded rapid initial growth followed by stagnation. Resulting unemployment and declining consumer demand led to a gradual reversal of U.S. social welfare policy toward Puerto Rico. Beginning in the 1950s, federal social insurance and public assistance programs were extended to Puerto Rico, albeit with funding restrictions not imposed on the states.

Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin

Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin. By Lawrence M. Mead. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 368p. $35.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.One of the most challenging aspects of welfare reform was that it made policy evaluation more difficult, especially after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 allowed states to shift from operating federal public assistance programs (or variants under waiver authority) to implementing programs of their own design. Analysts accustomed to studying a relatively stable set of nationally comparable social programs had to begin asking new, and sometimes startlingly basic, questions about the kinds of benefits that state and local governments were providing, to whom they were providing them, and on what basis. As a result, research on U.S. poverty and welfare reliance suffered a major setback at precisely the time when the need to track policy outcomes became especially critical.

The Effect of Food Stamps on Food Security: A Panel Data Approach*

This research seeks to estimate the effect of Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation on security. The FSP is the U.S. Federal Government's largest intervention against hunger and insecurity. In fiscal year 2002, the program provided more benefits ($18 billion) and served more people on average each month (19.1 million) than the federal cash assistance program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The federal government classifies a household as food secure if all household members have, at all times, access to enough for an active, healthy life. Official security estimates are based on eighteen survey items about symptoms of hardship in the past twelve months. Increasing security is an official FSP goal and a centerpiece of stamp policy debate. Yet, measuring the program's impact on security has proven difficult. Unobserved factors may influence measured security and the FSP participation decision. The potential problem of selection bias is stark. This research for the first time exploits the longitudinal structure of the federal government's flagship security survey to control for household-level fixed effects-constant unobserved factors that may influence both program participation and measured security. For example, if some households are simply more susceptible to hardships, they may be more likely to participate in the FSP and to be classified as food insecure. This research also controls for observable time-varying household conditions, such as the number of employed persons in the household and a rough measure of income. The empirical model does not control for unobserved factors that are time-varying,

The design of a dynamic allocation mechanism for the federal energy assistance program LIHEAP

A dynamic allocation mechanism for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is designed and analyzed using a theoretical decision-making framework. LIHEAP is a federal block grant program established in 1981 to help low-income households meet a portion of their home energy costs. The manner in which LIHEAP funds are allocated to states, however, has been a contentious issue since the inception of the program with many warm-weather states objecting to the distribution formula since it did not adequately address the cooling requirements of their states. In 1984, the Health and Human Services developed a more equitable formula by incorporating state cooling requirements in an equal weighting scheme with state heating requirements. In addition to the new distribution formula, various provisions were also legislated that specified when and how the 1984 formula could be employed. These provisions have turned out to be so constraining that they have effectively disabled the 1984 formula, and the consequence of the amendments is that an ad hoc and arbitrary formula for allocating funds among states continues to be applied. The purpose of this paper is to design a dynamic allocation mechanism that adjusts the provisions of the LIHEAP statute relative to the level of the regular appropriation. Specifically, the trigger level that enables the 1984 formula is considered a design parameter and the effect of a trigger level reduction on state allotments is described. The LIHEAP statute is quantified and the allocation percentages are represented in terms of a “universal tableaux.” System functionals that quantify the capital transfer between recipient states is defined and empirically constructed. The probability of realizing a fair allotment is computed as a function of various decision parameters.

“How They Ignore Our Rights as American Citizens”: Puerto Rican Migrants and the Politics of Citizenship in the New Deal Era

In the spring of 1936, following a spate of political violence amid Nationalist agitation in Puerto Rico, US Senator Millard Tydings proposed a bill granting the island independence from the US. Many Puerto Ricans had been pushing for independence since the US takeover in 1898, but the Tydings bill did not represent a concession to those demands. Rather, its impossibly punitive terms—involving the end of all New Deal federal assistance programs, the quick implementation of a full US tariff on Puerto Rican goods, and the withdrawal of all US government infrastructure and military within six months—advertised it as a quick fix to the political embarrassment due to Puerto Ricans’ intensifying anti-American sentiment.

Residential Assistance and Recovery Following the Northridge Earthquake

This paper examines the implementation of post-disaster US federal assistance programmes for residential reconstruction and investigates the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of places and access to residential assistance following the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. The paper also examines the effects of the distribution of assistance on long-term recovery outcomes. Findings suggest that areas with high levels of socially marginalised populations were at a disadvantage in accessing federal residential assistance. Findings also show that the long-term effects of the earthquake differed depending on levels of assistance relative to damage. Areas that received less assistance experienced losses in population and housing units. These findings indicate that post-disaster recovery programmes in the US do not adequately address the wide range of housing needs that emerge in the case of a major disaster in a large metropolitan area. Implications for post-disaster planning as well as for planning under everyday conditions are discussed.

Taxation of Class III Tribal Gaming: Is it on the Horizon?

451 TRIBAL GAMING HAS EXPLODED across the American landscape in the past 15 years. Initially starting out as card rooms and super bingo games, it has expanded to massive Las Vegas style casinos that generate hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for the recognized tribes that have aggressively developed sophisticated gaming businesses. There is no question but that these gaming operations have brought much needed revenue to tribes and their members that were previously impoverished and largely dependant upon federal assistance programs to meet their everyday needs. However, as tribes have developed financial strength and concomitant political muscle in the form of massive well placed political contributions at the local, state, and federal levels—their assertion of “sovereignty” in the face of ever increasing private enterprise— local and state attempts to regulate business operations affecting non-tribal persons, entities, and governments is causing an increasing portion of the citizenry to question the extent to which tribes should be free from the regulatory and tax framework that is imposed upon the rest of the population. At the heart of the growing controversy over tribal rights is a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between tribes and the United States government. Tribes are not, in fact, sovereign nations in the traditional sense (i.e., a separate country that is governed solely by its own laws). Rather, Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution (the so-called Indian Commerce Clause) places the regulation of “Indian Tribes” in the hands of the United States Congress by providing that: “The Congress shall have the Power . . . to regulate Commerce . . . with the Indian Tribes.” When Congress adopted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act1 (IGRA) in 1988 in accordance with the power granted to it by Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution, it was responding to the United States Supreme Court’s declaration in California et al. v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians et al.2 that the State of California could not enforce the state’s bingo and card game statutes on tribal lands. The case arose out of the state’s attempt to regulate bingo games and card games being operated by the Cabazon and Morongo Bands of Mission Indians on tribal land. In the face of strong tribal opposition, Congress enacted IGRA based upon findings that included the Congressional declaration that “a principal goal of Federal Indian policy is to promote tribal economic development, tribal self-sufficiency, and strong tribal government.”3 Congress went on to declare that the purpose of IGRA is:

Beef and pork packing industries.

A remarkable transformation of the meatpacking industry occurred in the last 25 years. That transformation consolidated the industry into one that could deliver large volumes of meat at low costs. Slaughter plants grew much larger and realized economies of scale from their size, and operations within plants were rationalized to emphasize the delivery of a small set of consistent major products (boxed beef, cut-up pork, and by-products) to retailers, wholesalers, and other processors. Similar developments occurred in livestock feeding whereby the industry realized significant cost reductions by consolidating production in very large cattle feedlots and hog farms. Gains from scale have largely been met (absent the development of new technologies that are not yet on the horizon); therefore, we are unlikely to see similar shifts in plant sizes in the next 25 years. The major forces affecting meatpacking and livestock feeding in the near future are more likely to revolve around tighter coordination among livestock production, meatpacking, wholesaling, and retailing. Although much of the recent response to food safety concerns took the form of investments in equipment, testing, and training within meatpacking plants, packers and retailers are likely to focus more on assurance of livestock production quality and methods in the future. Such assurance can be met through vertical integration or through a greater reliance on tightly drawn contracts; producers who attempt to provide the assurance while still selling through cash markets will need to develop paper trails of testing and quality assurance that will move through the marketing chain with livestock. Similarly, because of likely increased future demand for meats of assured consumer qualities, such as organically grown products or branded meat products with very specific traits, producers will likely need to provide similar indicators of assurance throughout the marketing chain. Finally, the funding offered through federal environmental assistance programs such as the USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program along with related regulations governing waste management will likely lead to greater control over livestock production practices by investors, financiers, integrators, and packers through contractual design. Shifts toward tighter vertical coordination will force continuing changes in traditional ways of doing business in livestock production and in meatpacking. In turn, public policy discussions and corporate strategies in meatpacking are likely to focus continuing attention on the particulars of contract design: how to meet consumers', retailers', and regulators' requirements for quality assurance while ensuring efficient low-cost production without retarding competition in the industry.

Magnet Schools: Reform and Race in Urban Education

magnet gained popularity in the 1970s when policymakers were designing desegregation plans in an effort to make them more attractive to parents, educators, and students. Magnet schools were established to promote racial diversity, improve scholastic standards, and provide a range of programs to satisfy individual talents and interests. Since 1975, when federal courts accepted magnet schools as a method of desegregation in Morgan v. Kerrigan (421 US 963), their number has increased dramatically. By the 1991-92 school year, more than 1.2 million students were enrolled in magnet schools in 230 school districts (Yu and Taylor 1997). During the 1999-2000 school year there were more than 1,372 magnet schools across the United States. Magnet schools are typically established in urban school districts with enrollments of more than 10,000. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 53 percent of large urban districts include magnet school programs as part of their desegregation plans, as compared with only 10 percent of suburban districts. For example, in the City of Chicago Public School District, 45 percent of all public schools are magnets, serving 48 percent of the student population (NCES 2001). Over half of all magnet programs are located in low socioeconomic districts (Levine 1997). Although they can involve all grade levels, more than half of the nation's magnet programs serve elementary school students; onl 20 percent of magnets are at the high school level (Yu and Taylor 1997; Levine 1997). The most common type of magnet school is one that emphasizes a particular subject matter, such as math and science, computers and technology, or a foreign language. Other programs offer a unique instructional approach, such as Montessori or Paideia. Magnet school programs are extremely popular, as measured by the fact that in over 75 percent of all districts with magnets the demand for student slots is greater than the supply; half of these districts maintain long waiting lists (Blank, Levine, and Steel 1996). Most districts must manage the admissions process by using a lottery; others rely on a first-come, first-served arrangement. Only about one-third of all magnet programs use a selective admissions policy, usually involving either a minimum test score requirement, or in a performing arts magnet, an audition. In many instances, districts have supported magnet schools with a considerable investment of resources. On average, expenditures per student are 10 percent higher in districts with magnets; almost three-fourths of magnet programs have additional staffing allowances as well. Some magnet programs are funded through state desegregation funds. Most are funded by three-year grants through the federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which began awarding grants in 1985. These funds are made available to districts that are either implementing magnet programs voluntarily or that are acting under court desegregation orders. The MSAP serves a critical role in magnet school

Dimensions and Patterns in Employee Empowerment: Assessing What Matters to Street-Level Bureaucrats

Empowerment ofpublic employees has been touted as an important mediating step in improving public organizational outcomes, yet such a relationship depends on an assumption that employees value what is offered as empowerment. This qualitative study explored the assumption through in-depth interviews of streetlevel bureaucrats in a large state human service agency. The interviews support previous research that empowerment is multidimensional; five patterns in empowerment were found. Empowerment programs must consider what each individual employee values. Employee empowerment has grown in importance in public administration. Early concern for employees as human resources and for the social aspects of work grew into the Quality of Work Life movement and such other efforts (e.g., McGregor 1960; Peters and Pierre 2000). The new public administration and the reinventing government movements have emphasized empowering employees (Marini 1971; Osborne and Gaebler 1992; DeWitt et al. 1994). Empowerment has become one of the buzzwords of the hour (Clark 1999, 5). We appreciate the comments of the anonymous referees. J-PART 12(2002):3:377-400 Two opposing viewpoints regarding employee empowerment appear in the literature. Some theorists imply that there exists, at least functionally, a relatively uniform understanding of empowerment, and they argue for implementing standardized programs (e.g., Rumelt 1974; Denhardt 1984; Wallace 1992; Balk, 1996). On the other hand, researchers have often found that empowerment is individually, contextually, and variably defined (e.g., Zimmerman 1995; Quinn and Spreitzer 1997; Foster-Fishman et al. 1998). These researchers argue for an understanding of a wide range of employee empowerment, varying across people even in the same setting. Yet, 377/Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory This content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 05:37:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Patterns in Employee Empowerment despite understanding empowerment differently, both viewpoints support employee empowerment programs. Each viewpoint bases its argument on the same assumption. They assume that workers value empowerment and, thus, empowering workers will result in greater job satisfaction, more consistent ethical behavior, improved customer service, increased efficiency and productivity, better outcomes, and so forth. In other words, both viewpoints assume that all employees value empowerment and that the desired consequences will necessarily result from empowerment programs. Questions regarding this fundamental assumption have been raised. For example, Argyris (1998) suggested that for some employees empowerment is too much work. Clark (1999, 5) highlighted the problems that can arise with the empowering of employees who take comfort in the old authority structure, knowing what the rules are and how they can protect their jobs. These authors have proposed that employees may not want to be empowered. This study focuses on this question and suggests that the assumption of value in empowerment may not hold. The study explored this fundamental value assumption in public employees who provide direct services to citizens: street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky 1980). Street-level bureaucrats have been the focus of employee empowerment programs, especially in recent welfare reform. Thus caseworkers in federal public assistance programs are relevant informants. This study asks the question, However they may define it, how do street-level bureaucrats value empowerment?

The TANF Reauthorization Debate: Key Welfare Reform Issues and Concerns

In the United States today, the term generally refers to the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which replaced the federal cash public assistance program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant. This legislation changed the structure of income support for poor families in the United States in a number of very significant ways, including the elimination of the individual entitlement to cash public assistance, the institution of a work-based safety-net for poor families with children (with, for example, the imposition of mandatory requirements and time limits on the receipt of cash public assistance), and the inclusion of family formation issues (such as the reduction of non-marital births and the promotion of marriage) among the welfare system's primary goals. The TANF program must receive Congressional reauthorization by September 30, 2002, and welfare researchers and advocates have focused a great deal of attention on identifying key TANF reauthorization issues and policy goals. Much of this discussion has focused on issues closely related to the core elements of the TANF program, such as the primary purpose of TANF, the size of the TANF block grant, the structure and implementation of time limits and sanctions, and the effectiveness of work first welfare-to-work strategies. In the context of the current economic downturn, the impacts of TANF policies in a weak economy and the ability of the TANF program to cope with increased economic need have also become critically important concerns. This paper provides a brief overview of some key TANF reauthorization issues and concerns that Congress is likely to face as it considers the next phase of welfare reform (see table 1).