ampaign...was the 1996 welfare reform, which replaced the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, a set of very stringent, categorical federal requirements, with block grants to the states” (Greve, 1999,p.120). Within general federal guidelines, the states are permitted to design and implement their own welfare programs.State governments are largely responsible for managing the budgets and enforcing the laws in many policy areas, such as poverty and education. Many members of Congress want the states to take on even greater authority in these areas and other, including environmental protection and crime control. Some experts believe that state governments will be able to tackle these problems more effectively and efficiently than Washington. Others, however, doubt that the federal government will provide adequate funds and worry that some states do not have the necessary infrastructure to offer adequate services.Before the Great Depression, aid to the poor came mostly from churches and charity organizations. When millions of Americans fell into poverty in the 1930s, however, charities and state governments were not financially equipped to provide for the needy, and there was no federal policy in place to provide aid to low-income people. President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress wrote landmark legislation, known collectively as the “New Deal,” to combat the effects of the Great Depression. The new legislation included massive job programs that provided work for unemployed Americans. Other programs, like Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Social Security, offered financial assistance to people who could not work because of family responsibilities, age, or disability. This legislation also marked the beginning of an era of centralization; control over many services became more concentrated in the federal government.The legacy of Roosevelt’s New Deal continued with President Lyndon ...
