[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 89 (Tuesday, July 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             WELFARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Klein). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentlewoman from 
Kansas [Mrs. Meyers] is recognized during morning business for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. MEYERS of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I feel very strongly that the 
biggest domestic challenge that we face is that of welfare reform. Let 
me give my colleagues a couple of statistics.
  By the year 2000, just 5\1/2\ years from now, 80 percent of minority 
children and 40 percent of all children in this country are going to be 
born out of wedlock; 80 percent of minority children and 40 percent of 
all children.
  Let me put that together with another statistic. If you graduate from 
high school, get married and do not have your first child until you are 
20, of that group of people, only 8 percent are in poverty. But if you 
do not graduate from high school, do not get married, and have your 
first child as a teen, of that group of people, 80 percent are in 
poverty.
  I think it becomes clear, when we put those two statistics together, 
that by encouraging teenage pregnancy, we are encouraging a whole host 
of problems that follow throughout the lives of these children that are 
born. I am not saying that all children that are born to a parent on 
AFDC are bad. Far from it. A great many of them turn out very well. But 
also a great many of them get a very bad start in life, and they have 
very little structure in their lives and no fathers. And sometimes not 
enough food and later on, we find statistically that these children 
have more trouble in school. They have more health problems, and they 
have more problems with crime.
  Let me read three quotes. This is from a recent document from the 
Children's Rights Council.
  ``Most law-abiding citizens work 40 to 45 years to qualify for a 
Social Security benefit that is smaller than a teenager's welfare 
package.'' They work 40 to 45 years to get a benefit that is smaller 
than a teenager's welfare package.
  Second quote, ``Many welfare recipients are not unemployed. They are 
prematurely retired.''
  Third quote, ``The reality is that current policies allow children to 
be held as hostages to guarantee continued subsidy of adult 
irresponsibility.''
  Now, there are several bills in to deal with this challenge. The 
President wants to add another $10 billion and have a job training 
program, a job search program, a job readiness program, a day care 
program, and a transportation program. The problem is, we did all that 
back in 1988, and the program failed miserably. It was supposed to cost 
$3 billion. It cost $13 billion. And less than 1 percent of the welfare 
population is working. Why would we try that again?
  There is another bill in that goes in the right direction, but I 
think it freezes too much and too fast.
  Let me describe my bill. It is H.R. 1493. It freezes AFDC. There are 
three large entitlement programs involved with welfare: AFDC, food 
stamps, and Medicaid.
  I do not do anything to food stamps and Medicaid. I freeze only AFDC, 
send it back to the States in block grants, allow the States absolutely 
maximum flexibility. And then, with only two mandates, one, no AFDC 
unless both parents are 18; second, no AFDC at any age until the father 
is absolutely identified with name and date and place of birth or 
Social Security number or something so that we know exactly who that 
father is.
  I leave it to the States to devise the work programs, because I do 
not think that we can say, give the States absolutely maximum 
flexibility and then go in and tell them, but we are going to mandate 
that you construct your work programs and your day care programs and 
everything just exactly as we tell you to.
  We should give them maximum flexibility but allow them to save $5 
billion to $6 billion over the next 5 years by mandating that they do 
not give AFDC to parents who are under 18 and that they not give AFDC 
until the father is absolutely identified.
  This bill would save $6 billion to $8 billion over the next 5 years 
at the Federal level.

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