[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3332-H3333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DSG SPECIAL REPORT ON REPUBLICAN CONTRACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Skaggs] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SKAGGS. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to advise Members of the 
publication today of the first special report being issued by the newly 
reorganized Democratic Study Group. It is a special report entitled 
``Cheating Children: The Real Meaning of the Republican Contract.'' It 
really is a catalog of the contract's attacks on the kids of America. 
It goes through in a very systematic fashion the various bills that we 
have already acted upon, particularly the welfare bill that will be in 
front of the House this week, and lays out exactly 
[[Page H3333]] what each of them will do to the children of America.
  First off, taking food from children. The welfare bill that we will 
have before us later this week when all is said and done with the 
various block grants on nutrition programs will mean a loss over the 
next 5 years of $6.5 billion compared to what would have been provided 
to hungry and needy kids. Where all does this take place? Well, in the 
very, very successful program for women, infants and children, early 
childhood care, we will have a cut that will deprive over 400,000 needy 
families that were otherwise entitled to help under the WIC Program.
  School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs under the new block grant, 
even if fully funded at the authorized level, will be almost $2.5 
billion below what would otherwise have been required under existing 
law, a really penny-wise and pound-foolish strategy given all of the 
data we have about how effective these school feeding programs have 
been in improving learning in this country.
  Food stamps will be cut by over $14 billion over the next 5 years 
under the welfare bill that will be coming up under Republican 
sponsorship, changes that would take food stamps away from over 2 
million Americans over the next 5 years and reduce the level of support 
to the participants that remain.
  At the level estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be 
necessary to carry out the revised program if unemployment remains low, 
we would have those kinds of deficits in coverage, but just think what 
happens if the economy slows down and more families with children 
become eligible for
 assistance? And also keep in mind, and it is a sad statistic but one 
that puts this in perspective. One in five children in America today 
depends upon food on the table from the food stamp program.

  Passing on from nutrition, which is certainly a central issue, to day 
care. Under the welfare bill that will be coming up from the Republican 
side, we will be cutting funding for child care programs by almost $2.5 
billion over the next 5 years, or a 20-percent drop compared to where 
we would be under current law. Sadly, for all the talk about how 
important it is to move welfare families on to work, to free them from 
dependency, unlike the current law, the bill that the majority party 
would bring to the House will have no requirement that in States that 
have work requirements for welfare, no requirement that these families 
also get child care. Again parents bill be put to the Hobson's choice 
of no good child care but requirements for work in order to remain 
eligible for any kind of assistance to their children.
  This bill will also greatly unravel the general safety net for kids 
in this country that is represented by aid to dependent children. 
Again, even if fully funded at authorized levels, which is a big 
question given the resort to annual appropriations rather than 
entitlement status, nearly $12 billion is to be cut compared with 
levels projected under current law. As the gentleman from Massachusetts 
commented a few minutes ago, it is truly a sad commentary that this 
bill will require that we deprive kids who happen to be born into the 
wrong kinds of family of any prospect for assistance when they are in 
need. The changes in the AFDC Program are estimated to leave something 
like 1.3 million needy children without assistance by the end of the 
century.
  It is even worse when we look at disabled kids now entitled to some 
help under the Supplemental Security Income, where changes proposed in 
this legislation would cut nearly $11 billion over the next 5 years. 
Within 6 months, over a quarter of the 900,000 kids that now depend on 
SSI would lose assistance.
  This is not good for America. It represents a perverse desire that in 
order to relax the capital gains tax formula for people over $100,000 a 
year, we are going to water down the baby formula for poor kids on WIC. 
Instead of putting money into the lock box for deficit reduction, we 
are going to have a tax cut that puts it into the safety deposit boxes 
of the wealthy.

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