When Congress passed landmark welfare reform legislation in 1996, Rick Santorum, then a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, voted for the bill.

Now Santorum is lending his voice to Mitt Romney’s campaign message that President Barack Obama has gutted that reform and done away with rules from the 1996 law that require welfare recipients to eventually get a job.

"This summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare," Santorum said Tuesday in a speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. "I helped write the welfare reform bill; we made the law crystal clear -- no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law."

PolitiFact checked a Romney campaign ad's claim that Obama ended welfare work requirements earlier this month, rating it Pants On Fire. In reality, the Obama administration has said it will consider proposals from states that are aimed at finding better ways of getting welfare recipients into jobs. FactCheck.org and the Washington Post Fact Checker have also said the claim is false.

But the claim lives on. The Romney campaign has released two more ads repeating the line that work requirements were "gutted" line and it's become a regular talking point for Romney campaign surrogates.

"Our most effective ad is our welfare ad," strategist Ashley O'Connor said at an RNC forum on Tuesday. "It's new information."