Holes in the Safety Net

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.

'American federalism has many faces, both bountiful and miserly, beneficent and malicious. Sadly, as Holes in the Safety Net shows, America's poor too often see its darkest face. Fortunately, the experts whose work animates this powerful book also light the path to a better federalism for the nation's most vulnerable citizens.' Jacob S. Hacker, Yale University, Connecticut, co-author of Winner-Take-All Politics and American Amnesia and author of The Great Risk Shift

• 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.