Robert Rector

Senior Research Fellow, Domestic Policy Studies

Robert Rector is a leading authority on poverty and the U.S. welfare system. Focusing on a range of issues relating to welfare reform, family breakdown, and America’s various social ills, he played a major role in crafting the federal welfare reform legislation passed in 1996, and he has conducted extensive research on the economic costs of welfare and its role in undermining families.

He is the author of America’s Failed $5.4 Trillion War on Poverty, a comprehensive examination of U.S. welfare programs, and co-editor of Steering the Elephant: How Washington Works.

Rector holds a B.A. from the College of William and Mary and a M.A. in political science from Johns Hopkins University.