[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   WE NEED LEGITIMATE WELFARE REFORM

  Ms. SHEPHERD. Mr. Speaker, there is a dangerous undertow in our 
current welfare system. Just as single mothers are about to break free 
of public assistance and establish their own financial independence, 
they are pulled back into dependency by a system which provides health 
care to those who don't work and offers no support to those fighting to 
become part of our mainstream economy. It is a system in which 
nonsensical regulations which make welfare pay more than work. We must 
abolish these disincentives to work, yet, as we consider policies to 
change our check-writing system to a jobs-focused system, we should not 
attempt to reinvent the wheel. Numerous States are successfully 
transforming welfare assistance into employment assistance and their 
positive results should form the foundation of any national effort.
  One such program exists in my home State of Utah. After receiving 
waivers from 46 Federal laws and regulations, Utah initiated the three-
county, Single Parent Demonstration Program, in January 1993. This 
innovative, employment-focused plan has literally moved thousands of 
people out of poverty by increasing family income through employment, 
strengthening child support enforcement, and encouraging the ethic of 
responsibility most Americans live by.
  From the recipient's initial contact with the Family Support Agency 
where an individualized responsibility contract is signed, 
participation requirements and the employment goals are made 
exceptionally clear. The Single Parent Demonstration Program demands 
responsibility while providing the training, child care, and support 
services necessary to ensure that welfare assistance is only temporary. 
The results speak for themselves. In just over a year, the number of 
AFDC families with earned income has increased by over 25 percent, 
caseloads have decreased by a comparable percentage and the number of 
families going off assistance has doubled. Because individuals are 
becoming self-sufficient, AFDC and food stamp benefits costs have 
decreased considerably.
  Based on the progress in Utah, I believe that any legitimate national 
reform plan must focus on private sector employment, provide adequate 
child care, improve child support enforcement procedures, and most 
importantly, contain broad State flexibility for program 
implementation. States, the laboratories of experimentation, should be 
given wide latitude to tailor policies which meet the unique needs of 
their citizens.
  Unfortunately, the proposals put forth to date have failed to meet 
these objectives. An abundance of data is available from those on the 
front lines of welfare reform in the States. If we are to truly end 
welfare as we know it, if we are to encourage parental responsibility, 
if we are to restore the American work ethic, these successes must form 
the basis of any national plan.

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