[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          INTRODUCTION OF THE CHILDREN'S SECURITY ACT OF 1994

  (Mrs. MINK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MINK. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill which adds 
children to the category of persons eligible for supplemental security 
income [SSI] benefits.
  Currently, the disabled, blind, and low-income elderly are eligible 
for SSI benefits.
  Last night President Clinton drew attention to the need for welfare 
reform and emphasized the job-oriented plan which his administration is 
urging. In order to get families off of welfare he fully understands 
that first, jobs must be available for which welfare recipients 
qualify; second, job training must be provided to help these people 
qualify for higher paying jobs because below poverty wages is not 
answer to welfare; and third, in order for welfare recipients to leave 
home there must be child care services available otherwise the children 
will be the innocent victims of this reform.
  Somehow when people target welfare as a way of life which must be 
changed by reform, they forget that these families are made up of young 
children.
  Today in one of my subcommittees we heard home-based care highlighted 
as the basis of our family ethic.
  Yet when we talk about the welfare family we seem to forget they too 
are families where caring and nurturing of their own children takes 
place. The President said last night ``governments don't raise 
children, parents do.'' It is just this concern that parents should 
have primary priority in raising their children that requires me to 
express my concern over the current avalanche of proposals which would 
require all welfare parents to go to work, even to the extent of some 
saying any kind of work has a higher societal value than parenting.
  I do support the goal of family self-sufficiency and I know that to 
achieve this, opportunities for jobs must be offered, together with job 
training and education. But I do not support the arbitrary 2 year cut 
off of benefits.
  My view is that our children cannot be left out of our discussion 
about welfare reform.
  Thus far welfare reform is discussed as though welfare only affects 
adults.
  AFDC is for children. That is what the ``C'' stands for. Yet the 
children are forgotten.
  I am introducing this bill today because I want to be sure that these 
children are not forgotten in this welfare debate.
  Children should have income security regardless whether their parents 
on welfare work or do not work or are unable to work.
  SSI payments allocated to children from welfare families could be 
assigned directly to pay for their education, child care, mental health 
services, housing, and other support services.
  If welfare parents are to be cut off welfare after 2 years, surely 
this country cannot mean to make its children indigent, homeless and 
hungry.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in protecting our innocent children 
by co-sponsoring my bill to include them under SSI.

                          ____________________