Chairman LaHood, Ranking Member Davis, and members of the Subcommittee on Work and Welfare, thank you for holding this hearing on the 30th anniversary of the 1996 welfare reform law and allowing me to submit this written testimony. 

My name is Matt Weidinger, and I am a Rowe Scholar in the Center for Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Before joining AEI, I served for over two decades on the staff of the House Committee on Ways and Means, including as a professional staff member of what was then known as the Subcommittee on Human Resources during the development, passage, and early implementation of the 1996 welfare reform law. I was honored to play a small role in that process and to later serve as staff director of this subcommittee and finally as deputy staff director of the full committee. My testimony reviews some of the remarkable history behind and results of the 1996 welfare reform law and concludes with suggestions for improving the effectiveness of our nation’s safety net in helping low-income families prosper.

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