Resources

The U.S. Social Security Administration publishes the quarterly Social Security Bulletin and the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin, which provide a statistical overview of major welfare programs. The Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes the TANF Annual Report to Congress, which describes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program enacted in 1996. Two additional valuable resources of the HHS are Indicators of Welfare Dependence, Annual Report to Congress (2003) and Aid to Families with Dependent Children: The Baseline (1998).

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which issues periodic reports on vital statistics such as birth rates and marital status as well as health status, is a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the HHS.

The U.S. Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce annually issues the Statistical Abstract of the United States and periodically publishes Current Population Reports that profile the U.S. population, as well as the results of the longitudinal SIPP studies based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Current Population Reports used in preparing this book include: Poverty in the United States: 2002 (2003), Income in the United States: 2002 (2003), Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Program Participation, 1996 to 1999, Who Gets Assistance? (2003), Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2001 (2003), Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2002 (2003), America's Families and Living Arrangements 2000 (2001), Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2002 (2003), and Net Worth and Asset Ownership of Households: 1998 and 2001 (2003).

The monthly Employment and Earnings of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides data on wages and work patterns, while the annual A Profile of the Working Poor details labor information about low-income workers. Many of the BLS data are published in the Monthly Labor Review. Other material used in preparing this book comes from the BLS's Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2002 (2003), data from the Annual Demographic Survey (2002) conducted cooperatively by the Census Bureau and the BLS, and the Unemployment Insurance Chartbook (2001) compiled by the BLS's parent agency, the Department of Labor.

The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides detailed tables about the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, the Food Stamp program and its participants, and the WIC program, as well as data from Household Food Security in the United States, 2002 (2003), Characteristics of Food Stamp Households, Fiscal Year 2002, prepared by Mathematica Policy Research in 2003, and Summer Food Service Program for Children: 2004 Administrative Guidance for Sponsors.

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C., investigates topics as requested by the U.S. Congress. GAO publications used in this book include Federal Housing Assistance: Comparing the Characteristics and Costs of Housing Programs (2002).

The periodically published Green Book—Background Material and Data on Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means (U.S. House of Representatives) provides the most complete information on the U.S. welfare system in a single source. The annual State Expenditure Report of the National Association of State Budget Officers shows how the states and territories spend their welfare funds.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a government research agency that works exclusively for members and committees of the U.S. Congress. Its reports include Welfare Reform: TANF Trends and Data (2002), and Welfare Reform: An Issue Brief (2003).

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., that releases reports, papers, updates, and studies on welfare. Its publications include A Hand Up: How State Earned Income Credits Helped Working Families Escape Poverty in 2003 and Failing the Unemployed: A State by State Examination of Unemployment Insurance Systems (Maurice Emsellem, Jessica Goldberg, Rick McHugh, Wendell Primus, Rebecca Smith, and Jeffrey Wenger, 2002). Recent Welfare Reform Research Findings: Implications for TANF Reauthorization and State TANF Policies, by Shawn Fremstad (2004) provided a valuable review of current studies on the effects of TANF.

The Annual Survey of Hunger and Homelessness of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is a valuable source of information on the need for emergency food assistance and housing in U.S. cities.

America's Second Harvest, a charitable hunger-relief organization, and Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., collaborated on the national research study Hunger in America, 2001, National Report Prepared for America's Second Harvest. Findings from a study of the Job Corps conducted by the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Labor, Does Job Corps Work? Summary of the National Job Corps Study (John Burghardt, Peter Schochet, Sheena McConnell, Terry Johnson, R. Mark Gritz, Steven Glazerman, John Homrighausen, and Russell Jackson, 2001) were also used in this book.

The Urban Institute, a nonprofit policy research and educational organization in Washington, D.C., published Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Welfare Reform (Alan Weil, 2002). Reports and data issued as part of the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project were also valuable resources, including Work Opportunities for People Leaving Welfare (Demetra Smith Nightingale, 2002), Former Welfare Families and the Food Stamp Program: The Exodus Continues (Sheila R. Zedlewski and Amelia Gruber, 2001), and information from the Welfare Rules Database, which tabulates details of the programs in all of the nation's states and territories.

Other nonprofit organizations whose materials were used in researching this book include the Finance Project, whose Welfare Information Network provides links to major organizations, reports, federal and state government agencies, and other sources of data; the Kaiser Family Foundation, an advocacy group that studies health and health insurance issues; the Center on Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a research and advocacy group that examines issues relating to low-income families; and the AFL-CIO, the voluntary federation of unions in the United States, which addresses issues of concern to workers.

The Gallup Organization of Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the premier polling organizations in the United States. It provides numerous public opinion polls regarding welfare in the United States.