On March 17, Representatives from Ohio, South Carolina, and New Jersey introduced the Welfare Reform Act of 2011.  The legislation intends to reduce the growing welfare expenditures which are reported to have grown by 292 percent in the last two decades.  The argument in support of this legislation is that spending programs have done nothing to improve the self-sufficiency of Americans or to reduce poverty.  Current statistics show that 43 million Americans live at or below the poverty level.  The intent of this legislation is described as resolving years of perpetuation of the dependency on state programs. The proposed legislation has many provisions, but of particular interest (or concern) on the part of states is Food Stamp Work Participation. This provision requires that all able-bodied recipients of food stamps between age 19 and 62 meet work requirements which could include employment, supervised job search, community service work, education and job training, and drug or alcohol treatment.  The added requirement of measurable success rates on states to track work participation for all food stamp recipients is a burden that most states will struggle to meet.  Some additional provisions would 1) require the President’s budget to include the amount of aggregate federal welfare expenditures as well as state and local welfare expenditures for the year, 2) cap all welfare spending (a reported 77 programs) to the spending levels of 2007, and 3) give incentives for state to increase self- sufficiency.