from the DataCenter's Economic Justice Program, Spring/Summer 2002

Heritage Foundation Researcher Sees Poverty Up-Close

Robert Rector exerts considerable influence over national welfare reform policy. He helped draft the 1996 welfare "reform" legislation and is one of the current Bush administration's leading policy advisors on the issue. A senior research fellow on welfare and family issues at the right wing Heritage Foundation, Rector denies poverty in the U.S. and claims that single motherhood is the primary cause of social problems.

In March, the Bush administration released a welfare reauthorization plan that reflects Rector's policy priorities: increasing number of hours mothers must work to receive welfare benefits and diverting funds and toughening state requirements to push poor women into marriage. State governments have been highly critical of the plan, pointing out that increased work requirements will not enable welfare recipients to move out of poverty.

Low-income activists and allies took their criticism of the Bush plan directly to its ideological source. While in Washington, D.C., to voice support for a progressive welfare reauthorization agenda, members of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support initiated a takeover of the Heritage Foundation. They found Rector at a soda machine and demanded that he see poverty in the U.S. first-hand. Rector agreed.

To help develop their media strategy for the "Day In Our Shoes" event, members of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support turned to the DataCenter for background research on the Heritage Foundation. After learning that Rector's misleading "research" had already been exposed in the media without diminishing its impact, the National Campaign decided to focus on presenting their issues.

On May 9, Robert Rector flew to Little Rock, Arkansas, to spend a day in the shoes of current and former welfare recipients. Arkansas Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a member of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, hosted the event.

Rector spent the night in a public housing project. At 6:00am, he joined Rivetta Cross, a fulltime student and former recipient who has reached her two year lifetime limit on welfare benefits, as she walked her children to daycare and took the bus to school. Cross pays for daycare and transportation out of her student Pell grant and $300 monthly income she earns at school to meet her basic needs.

Kambria Peveler met Rector outside the Department of Human Services office to apply for food stamps. Pressing a bag of mud into his hand, Peveler explained, "Inside, this is what they make us feel like." Peveler, like many welfare recipients, left her marriage because of domestic violence.

Rector ended his day with a trip to the grocery store, where he experienced the challenge of feeding a family on a low-income budget.

Rector says he was "sensitized" by his experience to problems that welfare families face, and is now convinced that more needs to be done on transportation and childcare. During the day, he stated that time limits should not be a focus of welfare reform. However, Rector did not budge from his pro-marriage position.

The event was covered by the Associated Press and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

For further information or to get involved, contact National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support and Arkansas Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.