The birth rate among young adolescents aged 10 to 14 has fallen to the lowest level since 1946. This number has declined steadily from a peak of 12,901 in 1994, to the current low of 7,315. U.S., birth rates to the youngest teenagers in 2000-2002 ranged from a national low of 0.2 per thousand in Maine to a high of 2.0 in Mississippi & the District of Columbia.

Differences by race in the relationship between taxes paid and benefits received under Social Security are due mainly to differences in lifetime earnings, the incidence of disability, and mortality among the groups. In the aggregate, blacks and Hispanics have higher disability rates and lower lifetime earnings, thus as a group tend to receive greater benefits relative to taxes than whites.

Congressional Testimony: Jessica Pearson, Ph.D., on Welfare, Child Support, and Domestic Violence, May 19, 1998 Indicates that domestic violence against women by men is not a significant issue in welfare cases.

There are two slightly different versions of the federal poverty measure: the poverty thresholds, and; the poverty guidelines. The poverty thresholds are the original federal poverty measure, used mainly for statistical purposes. The poverty guidelines are the other version of the federal poverty measure. They are a simplification of the poverty thresholds for use for administrative purposes.

Ronald Henry; President Clinton; welfare reform; two-parent families; family preservation; states

Ronald K. Henry; Ways and Means; Oversight; social services; social workers; family preservation; children; fathers; mothers; relatives; custody; AFDC; TANF; welfare