The Human Service Employees Registration and Voter Education Fund (Human SERVE) was formed as a nonprofit organization in 1983 by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. It played a catalytic role in the passage of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Cloward and Piven stood behind President Clinton at the bill signing on May 20, 1993). The Act requires states to permit people to register to vote when they get or renew drivers licenses or when they apply for benefits in welfare (Food Stamps, Medicaid, Women Infants and Children offices, and disability agencies). The Act went into effect in January 1995 and Human SERVE played a leading role in the effort to improve implementation by state officials especially in social service agencies. Human SERVE closed its doors in June 2000 having reached its goal of changing the American voter registration system by opening up access to people at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.