Robert E. Rector is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation focused on poverty issues. He is considered one of the architects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, and has also influenced immigration reform and abstinence education policy. Rector has written over 300 reports, articles, and commentaries on public policy and has testified before Congress more than 40 times. His writings include the book America's Failed $5.4 Trillion War on Poverty.
Rector is a leading expert on conservative poverty and welfare reform policy. He has testified before Congress and written extensively on the subject. Rector played a major role in the design and crafting of the welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996, which marked a significant shift in American welfare policy. Early in the reform process, the Wall Street Journal called Rector the “leading guru” behind the Republican position on welfare, stating, “to understand what Republicans are trying to do about welfare, don’t look to Newt Gingrich. Watch Robert Rector.” Rector promoted work and marriage as primary means to reduce material poverty and improve the well-being of the poor. His writing frequently expresses deep concern over the decline of marriage and rise of non-marital child bearing in low income communities and argues that dependence on welfare has harmed American society by discouraging marriage. He insists that welfare reform should seek to promote married two parent families. Rector has written frequently on the subjects of welfare and poverty, including the 1992 The Wall Street Journal article "America's Poverty Myth", which asserted that the US Census inaccurately measures poverty, and his 1995 book with William Lauber, America's Failed $5.4 Trillion War on Poverty, which criticized welfare laws in the US for allegedly rewarding breakdowns in family values. In 1995, The Wall Street Journal called Rector the "leading guru" behind the Republicans' position on welfare. In 2006, editor Rich Lowry of the conservative National Review called Rector, "the intellectual godfather" of welfare reform.
Immigration reform
Role in opposing the 2006 immigration reform proposals
Rector has been a researcher on immigration policy and has testified before Congress on the subject. In 2006, Rector published a report on the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act for The Heritage Foundation, stating that passage of the bill would lead to more than 100 million new legal immigrants within 20 years. Based on the report's findings, the Senate amended the bill to include restrictions on the guest worker program and visa caps. Rector has been featured in numerous media outlets as a conservative expert on immigration.
Role in opposing the 2013 immigration reform proposals
With statistical assistance from Harvard Ph.D. and then Heritage Research Fellow Jason Richwine, Rector wrote a report on the fiscal cost of proposed amnesty legislation to the United States. The report was published by the Heritage Foundation on May 6, 2013. Rector and Jim DeMint, a former U.S. senator and the newly installed Heritage Foundation president, introduced the report in an op-ed article in the Washington Post. The methods used in the report met with considerable criticism from a number of think tanks and immigration policy analysts across the political spectrum, including Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute, Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development, and many others. Later, widespread publicity of past research by study co-author Jason Richwine on race and intelligence as well as race and crime in the United States, as part of his Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University under George Borjas, led to a greater backlash against the study. Richwine left Heritage as a result of the controversy. On June 23, 2013, Rector appeared on C-SPAN debating Alex Nowrasteh on the immigration legislation under consideration at the time in the United States Congress.
Abstinence education
Rector is a proponent of abstinence education. His advocacy prompted the inclusion of school-program funding for the teaching of abstinence in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Rector has published research papers for The Heritage Foundation that conclude a delay in the onset of sexual activity is linked to positive life outcomes. He is quoted as an expert on abstinence education by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times. In 1999, the Los Angeles Times called Rector the "architect of the abstinence-only movement."
