U.S. to Offer States $1 Billion in Bonuses

The Clinton administration has decided to distribute $1 billion in federal bonuses to states that are most successful in moving welfare recipients into jobs and keeping them there. The guidelines spell out for the first time precisely what the states must do to compete for the coveted “performance bonuses” created by 1996 welfare legislation. In issuing the guidelines, the administration answered the long-standing question of whether success in welfare reform would be measured on the basis of declining caseloads. Advocates for the poor had feared that distributing bonuses based on caseload decline would encourage states to push recipients off the rolls.