Legislating a "Normal,Classic Family": The Rhetorical Construction of Families in American Welfare Policy

This essay discusses the policy construction of welfare families through an analysis of the welfare hearings and debates from the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses, all of which led to President Clinton's signing of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Throughout the legislative process, witnesses and legislators relate stories about families on welfare and compare welfare families to an ideal nuclear family. This essay demonstrates the rhetorical appeal of these stories and their powerful influence on the resulting 1996 Act. The central argument of the essay is that depictions of welfare families influence legislation that affirms a historically privileged traditional family structure. The 1996 Act and subsequent proposals reinforce this married family ideal despite significant research demonstrating that (a) many Americans do not live in traditional nuclear families, (b) there are potential negative consequences of marriage promotion, and (c) federal reforms are unlikely to result in measurable increases in marriage rates.