[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT

  (Mr. HUTCHINSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, there are many, many important 
components in the Personal Responsibility Act: the block grants that 
provide the States greater flexibility, the tough work requirements 
they are going to require so that people would have to work in order to 
gain welfare payments.
  Mr. Speaker, ending the entitlement nature of welfare is essential so 
that we finally turn back these entitlement programs. But most 
fundamentally and essentially, it is a welfare reform package that for 
the first time begins to deal with illegitimacy's disastrous effects on 
our society.
  Out-of-wedlock birth is a certain predictor of poverty. The one-
parent family is six times more likely to be poor than the two-parent 
family; children born outside of marriage are three times more likely 
to depend upon welfare themselves when they reach adulthood. The 
likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activities doubles 
if he is raised without a
 father and tripled if he is raised or lives in a neighborhood with a 
high concentration of single-parent families.

  We end in this welfare reform bill the subsidy for illegitimacy for 
unwed moms under the age of 18. By targeting teenagers, we intend to 
stop the cycle of misery before it starts. We need to pass the Personal 
Responsibility Act.

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