As the welfare overhaul kicks in, states are deciding whether they want to continue to finance some benefits.

He said the central component of any welfare overhaul should be workfare.

The food stamp program was cut by $26 billion over six years in the last farm bill as part of the welfare overhaul.

Such flexibility, he says, is essential to the success of any welfare overhaul.

The problems began, he said, as the welfare overhaul hit Tennessee, giving parents vouchers toward the cost of day care.

The national welfare overhaul adopted in 1996 limits recipients to no more than five years of federal aid.

The new strategy reflects a change in the political climate since the welfare overhaul of 1996.

Nor do we hear about the long-term effects of the welfare overhaul.

Yet there is a growing sense that the nation's ambitious welfare overhaul cannot succeed without them.

Most states disbanded such control groups by 1997, when the national welfare overhaul went into effect.