This report chronicles the history of the Federal role in welfare programs and training and employment programs since the New Deal. Part I presents a chronological summary of legislative action since 1935 and briefly discusses some major issues the Congress has tried to resolve, including: whether Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients should be treated as employable; how employment and training programs should be administered and what they should provide; and how children of working parents can be assured of adequate care. A lack of congressional consensus on these issues has led to bitter debate, administrative confusion, and a lack of policy coherence. Part II discusses the following topics in greater detail: (1) enactment of a program of aid to dependent children; (2) adoption of the concept of "self-support"; (3) "unemployed parents" introduced to the program; (4) the public welfare amendments of 1962; (5) expansion of the work incentive concept; (6) enactment of the work incentive (WIN) program; (7) welfare reform and welfare expansion during the Nixon era; (8) legislation for employment-related demonstration projects; (9) Carter's welfare reform proposal--basic issues reemerge; (10) efforts to authorize job search and changes in the WIN program; and (11) the Reagan Administration--renewed emphasis on work requirements. Appendices provide data on work programs, characteristics of AFDC recipients, AFDC enrollment and benefits, the general population of mothers in the labor force and the status of children, and selected employment and training programs for AFDC recipients. (KH)