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Mark Greenberg

Mark Greenberg is the director of the Task Force on Poverty at the Center for American Progress. He is on leave from the Center for Law and Policy, where he is the Director of Policy.

Recent Articles

Making Poverty History

Mark GreenbergApr 22, 2007

We might not expect TV's American Idol to be out in front of most presidential candidates on issues of national importance, but that's what happened this spring. AI's producers announced that they would dedicate two evenings to raising funds and awareness for children and young people in poverty, in both America and Africa. The show's commitment stands in contrast to most of the 2008 candidates. What does American Idol know that they don't?

Welfare Reform, Phase Two

Mark GreenbergAug 13, 2004

In 1996, welfare reform was rarely far from the headlines. across the country, states were overhauling their cash assistance programs for poor families. That summer, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a deeply controversial revamping of the federal-state system. The new law ended public assistance as a federal entitlement, in favor of a complex system of state block grants with work requirements and time limits.

Bush's Blunder

Mark GreenbergJul 02, 2002

In the last three months, the welfare-reform debate
has
been transformed in ways few people envisioned even recently. The change hasn't
been for the better. Early this year, many people believed that reauthorization
of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
provided an opportunity to help low-income working families and the
hardest-to-employ, and to reduce poverty. Instead, the debate is now mired in the
bumper-sticker disputes of the early 1990s about who can appear tougher in
requiring more welfare recipients to work more hours more quickly.