The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, more commonly known as the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The AFDC and TANF programs differ in two distinct ways. First, AFDC was a federal- state matching program with low-income states contributing a smaller share of their welfare payments than high-income states (U.S. Committee on Ways and Means, 1998). TANF is a federal-to-state block grant program in which states receive a fixed amount of money from the federal government each year (U.S. Committee on Ways and Means, 1996). Second, AFDC is an entitlement program; that is, individuals who applied and were eligible for benefits received them. TANF is not an entitlement program; eligible applicants are not guaranteed assistance unless a state decides to adopt such a guarantee.