HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced that 28 states have been awarded high performance bonuses created to reward superior results in welfare reform. The $200 million in annual bonuses, established in the 1996 welfare reform law, was given to the states with the best achievement in moving parents on welfare into jobs and their success in staying employed and increasing their earnings.

Three-city study from Johns Hopkins University examines who is affected by sanctions and case closings and why.

This transcript from the Brookings Institution provides information from a Brookings briefing on the latest Census numbers on poverty and income. Experts on the panel included Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Larry Aber, Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy, New York University; Ron Mincy, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, Columbia University; Gary Burtless, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; and Brigid Schulte, Staff Writer, The Washington Post.

This report from the Government Accountability Office seeks to measure the success of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in terms of helping low-income workers find jobs in a streamlined manner as well as engaging employers in the process. In 2005, GAO found that half of local employers knew about services provided at local one-stop centers. This report examines the extent to which employers utilize local one-stop centers and if these services are useful to employers.

This study, presented at NAWRS, reviews longitudinal data from Utah regarding job retention and earnings for prior TANF customers. Due to the major decline in TANF cases in 2003, Utah was interested in finding out about job retention and earnings among clients leaving the caseloads. Researchers found that after six quarters, approximately 66 percent of TANF leavers were still working, and on average, earnings showed a 35 percent increase since the first quarter of case closure.

This article provides a concise overview of Federal legislation involving IDA's (AFIA, TANF, privately funded) and discusses their interaction and impacts on TANF, Medicaid, SCHIP, Food Stamps, and SSI.

This report summarizes the ACF West-Central Hub TANF Financial Management and Reporting Workshop held August 7-9, 2001 in Addison, TX.

This report details the three day Leadership Conference of ACF's West Central Hub. Topics discussed include fatherhood, healthy marriages, faith-based and community initiatives, and positive youth development.

A new article by Mark Ragan, Senior Fellow of the Rockefeller Institute, "Study Identifies Multiple Strategies and Critical Factors for Integrating Human Services," was published by The Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism in March 2003.

This report sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) describes the key decisions and activities undertaken in privatizing TANF case management and documents the lessons learned in six study sites from their experiences in privatizing TANF case management.