when reauthorization of the 1996 welfare law begins in earnest this year, as well as during the annual appropriations process, there will be loud debate over proposals, enthusiastically backed by the Bush administration, to launch new marriage promotion initiatives and to expand abstinence-only education programming. Many scholars as well as advocates, however, are uneasy with the notion of government as “marriage broker.” And they question whether government effectively can—or even should—spend its capital on morality-based campaigns to convince people who are unmarried not to have sex. The research presented here, in fact, indicates that this approach is driven more by ideology than evidence. It strongly suggests that more-realistic attitudes about young people’s sexuality and more-comprehensive responses to their needs, broadly defined, as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood would be the more-appropriate approach. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) is one member of Congress who understands this. Cardin is ranking minority member of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, which will play a key role in the welfare reauthorization process. At a November 2001 hearing on teenage pregnancy, Cardin articulated what he believes the government should be doing to build on the current progress: “I would say that we should continue our focus on personal responsibility; we should do a better job of not only funding local efforts to combat teen pregnancy, but also of highlighting successful programs; we should increase access to youth development and after-school programs that give teenagers productive activities to pursue; and we should promote the value of abstinence without undercutting our commitment to providing access to and information about contraception.