[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  GOP KEEPING ITS PROMISE TO CHILDREN

  (Ms. DUNN of Washington asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DUNN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, Republicans are keeping their 
promises--and that includes the promise to help millions of children 
currently forced to live on welfare because one of their parents has 
abandoned them. This Nation's No. 1 natural resource is its children, 
and they deserve the protection that Republicans offer them in our 
welfare reform plan.
  For decades our Nation has seen a huge welfare bureaucracy continue 
to grow while Congress stood idly by failing to hold parents 
accountable for the precious children they have brought into the world 
and then carelessly chose to abandon. We cannot allow this tragic 
status quo to continue.
  Under the Republican welfare reform bill States will finally get the 
assistance they need to track down deadbeat parents--especially the 30 
percent who move out of the State often to avoid paying child support. 
Our proposal will help to find these individuals and require them to 
pay the $34 billion they owe in child support to the children they have 
deserted--children who might have been kept off welfare if the parent 
had kept his commitment.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a tough approach but a fair one. And, above all 
else, it is the approach that can save children from falling into the 
welfare trap of a lifetime of dependence on the Government.
  We can end the status quo. Let us help States find those deadbeat 
parents, and let's keep our promise to the children.

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