[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                THE WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1994

  (Mr. FORD of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and to include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. FORD of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join with my 
colleagues, the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and other 
members of that committee and the chairman of the Committee on 
Education and Labor in cosponsoring the new welfare reform package that 
has been sent to the Congress today by President Clinton, and that bill 
now has a number: 4605. I will be including statements from the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons], the acting chairman of the full 
Committee on Ways and Means and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Ford].
  Today I join with, not only the acting chairman, but, hopefully in a 
bipartisan way, Democrats and Republicans alike in trying to come up 
with ways and means to fashion a welfare bill that will respond to the 
real problems of poor people and the welfare population in this Nation. 
We have waited quite some time, but the President has kept his word to 
this Congress and to the American people. We do have a welfare reform 
package before us.
  Mr. Speaker, this has been a very courageous move on the President's 
part, and I join with him, Republicans, and the American public in 
trying to say that, yes, we are going to move right away to bring a 
bill to the House floor.
  The statements referred to are as follows:
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing, together with the 
Honorable William D. Ford, chairman of the Committee of Education and 
Labor, the Honorable Harold E. Ford, chairman of the Committee on Ways 
and Means, Subcommittee on Human Resources, and the Honorable Matthew 
G. Martinez, Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, 
Subcommittee on Human Resources, the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, 
majority leader, and three other Members of the House of 
Representatives, H.R. 4605, the Work and Responsibility Act of 1994.
  In making his welfare reform proposal, President Clinton has once 
again demonstrated his willingness to confront difficult problems and 
to propose balanced solutions. The President's proposal doesn't blame 
poor children and their parents. It doesn't blame immigrants, whom we 
have welcomed to our land under immigration and naturalization law. 
Instead, it follows the basic values of the American people--able-
bodied parents ought to work to support their families, and parents 
ought to be responsible for their children.
  Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, President Lyndon Baines Johnson 
commissioned me to help lead the war on poverty. Contrary to popular 
belief, we had more than a few successes in those days. In fact, that 
effort, along with strong economic growth, reduced the American poverty 
rate by more than 40 percent. But when we pulled back from those 
efforts, poverty rose, and welfare caseloads grew dramatically, 
particularly in the past 5 years. We had paid a high price for their 
ineffective policies of the last 20 years. Now is the time to change 
course.
  President Clinton wants to renew our commitment to the American 
taxpayer to help poor parents who are willing to help themselves. He 
has pledged to end welfare as we know it, and I am ready to reenlist 
for that effort. The Government has an obligation to help those who 
cannot make it on their own, but they have an obligation as well--to 
their children, to their communities, and to our society.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an issue on which there is bipartisan agreement 
that the system needs reform. I agree with the President that welfare 
reform should be a top priority when we complete work on health care 
reform. I look forward to helping the President in ending welfare as we 
know it, and I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort.
  Mr. FORD of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, today I join Acting Chairman 
Gibbons in cosponsoring President Clinton's Work and Responsibility Act 
of 1994.
  The President has lived up to his promise to deliver a welfare reform 
bill to the Congress, and I applaud him. He has demonstrated his 
courage both by initiating a national debate on this difficult issue, 
and by proposing specific solutions to the problems we all seek to 
address.
  I am cosponsoring the President's welfare reform bill because I 
believe we have a crisis in this country that we ignore at great risk 
to poor families, and our national well-being. While I agree with many 
of the proposed solutions in the President's bill, I will seek changes 
in the legislation that ensure families better opportunities to develop 
their skills, to work and to earn a living wage.
  President Clinton is right to focus his welfare reform proposal on 
work. As the research indicates, the majority of welfare parents want 
to work, and eventually do work. However, many are hampered in their 
efforts by a welfare system that at its best ignores their goals, and 
at its worst creates barriers to their realization.
  And too often forgotten in the welfare debate are the barriers 
presented by today's labor market. Real wages for low-skilled workers 
have fallen precipitously, and opportunities for upward mobility have 
deteriorated. In isolated rural and inner-city labor markets, job 
availability is a significant concern.
  Both the welfare system and the labor market are failing many 
families in America, and this is the context in which I plan to 
consider welfare reform. I pledge to work to ensure that more jobs at 
living wages are created under the welfare reform bill and other social 
policy initiatives. I make this pledge to the parents and children who 
receive welfare assistance, and to their many brethren who have left 
welfare to work, yet remain poor.

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