[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                WELFARE REFORM: BEYOND SLOGANS TO ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Kennelly] is 
recognized during morning business for 4 minutes.
  Mrs. KENNELLY. Mr. Speaker, right now as we go forward on our work in 
this new Congress, there is no debate on whether we should reform 
welfare. That debate is over and both sides of the aisle agree that we 
should and the taxpayers have reached a consensus that the system does 
not work as we know it today. But saying that, it is not enough. It is 
time for all of us to understand that real reform is not a matter of 
finding the best slogans. In fact, it is a cruel hoax to the American 
people to say that we can do welfare reform easily. In fact, it is 
going to be very difficult to carry out welfare reform.
  Today I would challenge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
move beyond the slogans that we have adopted these last few months to 
get that message out and get down to the real work of doing welfare 
reform.
  Let us begin to deal with the realities of what real reform will mean 
and come to grips with some of the most difficult issues.
  Let me give some examples. Slogan 1: ``Those who refuse to accept 
responsibility should not receive a free ride.''
  We all agree. But when I take a very good read of the contract, I see 
that if in fact a woman establishes the paternity of her child, gives 
the name of the father, gives the address of the father, and yet that 
paternity does not get legally established by the State organization or 
an agency that is dealing with this thing, that child will not receive 
any assistance.
  The contract states that any child whose paternity is not established 
would be in fact ineligible for benefits. This would be in any case 
unless in fact paternity was established. Yet we know in real life that 
State agencies often take up to 6 months to establish paternity. We 
also know that there are those who have fathered children, leave the 
State, cannot be found and paternity cannot be established. That makes 
no difference. The child will not in fact receive any help.
  Slogan 2: ``Welfare reform must aim at keeping families together.''
  My heavens, that is exactly what all of us want. Without a family, it 
is very, very difficult to grow up and be able to take care of yourself 
in life. Yet we tell this as a fact. But if we look at the contract, we 
see very little reference other than that area about paternity about 
what responsibilities the father carries.
  Therefore, many of us in this Congress want very deeply to have the 
welfare reform bill move along quickly, as rapidly as it can, being 
well-done, and have child support enforcement move along with it.
  Child support enforcement is a necessary vehicle to go along with 
welfare reform so in fact two people, those two people that had the 
children, are involved in supporting that child and the taxpayer does 
not get left.
  We know that if we do this, there is a much better chance that that 
child will grow up and be able to feel good about itself.
  I think that we should continue to ask that those that are doing the 
welfare reform have child support enforcement happen at the same time.
  Some say there are acceptable alternatives to letting the young, 
often immature mothers raise their children in inadequate surroundings 
with insufficient support. We all agree on that. But let us not also be 
fooled by the idea that everybody who has a child out of wedlock 
establishes an apartment and is on their own. Ninety percent of those 
people, those young women, live with a member of the family or a 
relative, with a mother, a father or a relative.
  When we go beyond that, we have to be very careful that we do not let 
others fall through the cracks, and I mean fall through the cracks by 
not having adequate support that we all say we want. Not orphanages, of 
course not. But we certainly should look at group homes.
  I will continue this later because there are other things we are 
trying to do that are simplistic. It is going to be hard to do welfare 
reform. We want to do it, but we should do it right.


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