[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 31 (Thursday, February 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1896-H1897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               THE SO-CALLED PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER per tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Tucker] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the so-called 
Personal Responsibility Act.
  For years now, Mr. Speaker, Democrats, Republicans, welfare 
recipients, and Americans on opposite ends of the political spectrum 
have all agreed on two things; No. 1: The welfare system is broken, and 
No. 2: We as Americans must change welfare as we know it.
  This bill as I read it, Mr. Speaker, fails in several ways to address 
the problem.
  First, the bill erroneously assumes that the problem with welfare is 
that these people just do not want to work.
  The reality, however, is that 70 percent of those who receive welfare 
benefits are children. The remaining 30 percent are the mothers of 
these children and disabled persons.
  Second, and most importantly--this body, as it has done in the past, 
is attempting to base new public policy on the same false premise--that 
these people just do not want to work! Therefore, to encourage them to 
work--cut them off.
  The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that the problem with welfare is this 
body's total abdication of its responsibility to deal openly and 
forthrightly with the cause of welfare--the lack of a real job paying a 
livable wage.
  If we did address this problem openly, Mr. Speaker, we would find 
that what 
[[Page H1897]] most welfare recipients want is an opportunity to work--
not a welfare check!
  This bill, Mr. Speaker, does nothing to empower people. It does 
nothing to address those very important secondary impediments to 
welfare mothers going to work, the need for day care for their children 
so they can go to work, and the need for health care for their 
children.
  Further, Mr. Speaker, the bill fails to invest the resources in job 
training and education necessary to equip welfare mothers to compete 
for the jobs that are available.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, the only thing this bill guarantees to our 
children, is that once their parents have used their allotted 
benefits--that's it! There is no other safety net for these families or 
their children.
  So no matter what happens to the Nation's economy or the economy of 
your State, no matter what happens with your personal circumstances, 
regardless of your efforts to secure employment, that is it--no more 
benefits.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill would abolish the entitlement status of those 
essential programs that protect our children from hunger and 
homelessness.
  What this means, Mr. Speaker, is that no longer are poor children 
guaranteed that they will grow up with a roof over their head and food 
in their mouths.
  In fact what our children are guaranteed, Mr. Speaker, is that their 
basic health and nutrition needs will now be subject to individual 
State priorities and each new Congress views about their mothers and 
their willingness to work.
  What we have done in this bill, Mr. Speaker, is to decide that 
welfare and single mothers and their children are the root of all evil 
in this society and if we are to ever balance the budget we must get 
these pariahs off the rolls.
  The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that 70 percent of all welfare 
recipients are off welfare
 in 2 years and only 12 percent of all welfare recipients stay on 
welfare more than 5 years. So why this body would base welfare policy 
on the 12 percent of people who have not, will not or cannot get off 
welfare is beyond me.

  This bill would require, or as we like to say in Washington--
mandate--that States deny AFDC permanently to families where the 
children were born after this bills passage to unmarried mothers 
younger than 18. States would also have the option to deny assistance 
to children born to unmarried mothers younger than 21.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill would allow States to eliminate all cash 
benefits to families who have received aid for 2 years and--
permanently--bar such families from any future aid if the parent had 
participated in the work program for at least 1 year. After 5 years, 
States would be required/or mandated to terminate permanently the 
family from cash assistance.
  The State even if it wanted to continue cash payments would be 
directed by Washington to deny this benefit.
  In both of these cases, Mr. Speaker, the Contract on Americans would 
allow children and families to be left without any cash help or a 
public service job even when the parent was willing to work but unable 
to find private sector employment.
  An even more ominous provision in this assault on America's children, 
Mr. Speaker, would take the savings generated by denying assistance to 
unmarried teens and their children, and use those same funds to build 
orphanages for those children or group homes for those children and 
their teen parents rendered destitute by this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, it is open season on poor American children and the 
people sent here to protect them are running roughshod over them with 
careless indifference or conscious disregard.
  My district, Mr. Speaker, has 61,000 children living below the 
poverty line. I am not interested in orphanages and group homes, I am 
interested in jobs that will employ the parents of these children.
  What is required, Mr. Speaker, is an honest appraisal, free of finger 
pointing, free of race baiting, free of vitriolic attacks on lobbyless 
women and children, and most important, Mr. Speaker, a real commitment 
to creating jobs.

                              {time}  1520

  An even more ominous provision in this assault on America's children 
is that it would take the savings generated by denying assistance to 
the unmarried teens and their children. As we debate this issue coming 
up next week on the floor of the House, let's take a hard look at the 
Personal Responsibility Act and hold it responsible.


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