---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 1397n"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "1397n"
heading: "Purposes"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/1397n"
units:
  - "Chapter 7 — Social Security"
  - "Subchapter XX — Block Grants and Programs for Social Services and Elder Justice"
  - "Division C — Social Impact Demonstration Projects"
---

# §1397n. Purposes


The purposes of this division are the following:

- (1) To improve the lives of families and individuals in need in the [United States](/usc/42/1301.md?p=a-2) by funding [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) programs that achieve real results.
- (2) To redirect funds away from programs that, based on objective data, are ineffective, and into programs that achieve demonstrable, measurable results.
- (3) To ensure Federal funds are used effectively on [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) services to produce positive outcomes for both service recipients and taxpayers.
- (4) To establish the use of [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) impact partnerships to address some of our Nation’s most pressing problems.
- (5) To facilitate the creation of public-private partnerships that bundle philanthropic or other private resources with existing public spending to scale up effective [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) [interventions](/usc/42/1397n–12.md?p=2) already being implemented by private organizations, [nonprofits](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=3), charitable organizations, and [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5) and local governments across the country.
- (6) To bring pay-for-performance to the [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) sector, allowing the [United States](/usc/42/1301.md?p=a-2) to improve the impact and effectiveness of vital [social](/usc/42/1397j.md?p=20) services programs while redirecting inefficient or duplicative spending.
- (7) To incorporate outcomes measurement and randomized controlled trials or other rigorous methodologies for assessing program impact.

## Source credit

(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title XX, § 2051, as added Pub. L. 115–123, div. E, title VIII, § 50802(2), Feb. 9, 2018, 132 Stat. 269.)