Holes in the Safety Net
Federalism and Poverty

While the United States continues to recover from the 2008 Great Recession, the country still faces unprecedented inequality as increasing numbers of poor families struggle to get by with little assistance from the government. Holes in the Safety Net: Federalism and Poverty offers a grounded look at how states and the federal government provide assistance to poor people. With chapters covering everything from welfare reform to recent efforts by states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, the book avoids unnecessary jargon and instead focuses on how programs operate in practice. This timely work should be read by anyone who cares about poverty, rising inequality, and the relationship between state, local, and federal levels of government.

Introduction Ezra Rosser; Part I. Welfare and Federalism: 1. The tools in the battle: federalism, entitlement, and punishment across the US social welfare state Wendy Bach; 2. Laboratories of suffering: toward democratic welfare governance Monica Bell, Andrea Taverna, Dhruv Aggarwal and Isra Syed; 3. The difference in being poor in red states versus blue states Michelle Gilman; Part II. States, Federalism, and Anti-Poverty Efforts: 4. States' rights and state wrongs: SNAP and Medicaid work requirements in rural America Rebecca H. Williams and Lisa Pruitt; 5. State and local tax takeaways Francine Lipman; 6. Early childhood development and the replication of poverty Clare Huntington; 7. States diverting funds from the poor Daniel Hatcher; 8. States' evolving role in SNAP David Super; Part III. Advocacy: 9. Federalism in health care reform Nicole Huberfeld; 10. Poverty lawyering in the states Andrew Hammond; 11. Conclusion. A way forward Peter Edelman.

Ezra Rosser is a law professor at American University Washington College of Law, where he teaches poverty law, property law, and federal Indian law. He is a co-author of the leading poverty law textbook and is the editor of the Poverty Law Blog.