This week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney began airing an ad that accuses President Obama of wanting to do away with the work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

Elizabeth Ananat
Assistant professor of public policy and economics, Duke University
elizabeth.ananat@duke.edu
http://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/faculty/elizabeth.ananat
 
Ananat's areas of research include the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality; the economics of family formation and fertility; and the causes and effects of racial segregation. In 2010, she served as a senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Quote:
"Romney's claim is patently false and misleading. States will only be granted waivers for plans that make it easier for them to increase work among recipients, and they'll be evaluated on how much they increase employment once they get the waiver. If the state doesn’t succeed in increasing the placement of parents into employment, the waiver will be rescinded.
 
"This policy continues in the successful tradition of state welfare waivers that started in the early 1990s and helped produced the huge gains in employment among poor parents we have seen over the past 20 years. Experts and state officials of both parties have been clamoring for the opportunity for another round of experimentation, and the administration is simply answering their call."