[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          DIGNITY OF WORK IS WHAT WELFARE REFORM IS ALL ABOUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Tanner], is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, let me just say as I start here, I have been 
here 6 years and we have been working on this welfare reform program 
almost from the day I got here.
  The people who have been working on the Deal substitute have been 
working tirelessly for the last 3 years that I know of, and we 
appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor tomorrow and offer the 
Congress, the House, a chance to vote with us.
  I have been disappointed in the debate tonight. I still have trouble 
determining why a school lunch program has anything to do with helping 
people go back to work. When we started our welfare reform plan, we 
went from the principle that work is dignity, work is what people need, 
work will make this country stronger, and we insist that if you want 
something from the Government you must do something for yourself.
  For people who are talking about the school lunch program, the school 
lunch program started 49 years ago and it was a national program. The 
reason it was started by President Truman was because so many kids from 
around the country in poor, rural States were unable to pass their 
draftee physical.
  School nutrition, what kids have for lunch is not what we are about. 
We are about reforming the welfare system so people can go back to work 
and earn their own way.
  We give more State flexibility in the Deal bill than anybody does. 
Right here, provisions, AFDC benefits, State option; mandated in H.R. 
4. Families, States option, mandated in H.R. 4. Child support pass-
through, State option for Deal, mandated in H.R. 4.
  It is ironic that on the day the President signs the unfunded 
mandates legislation, which many of us have been working on for 2 or 3 
years, and again we thank the majority for bringing that to the floor, 
that we have seen a bill now come before the floor on welfare for 
mandating to the States many of the things that we leave to State 
flexibility on the wonderful theory that many Republicans have 
professed through the years that local people know best.
  We have work first. We give States flexibility in
   how they do that, and we do one other thing for those people that 
are just barely getting by and they are working, they are living by the 
rules, playing by the rules and that is this: We include public 
assistance for purposes of taxable income on the basic fair theory that 
a welfare dollar should not be worth more than a work-earned dollar. We 
are the only plan that does that.

  Now we have, many of us who have been voting for some of the contract 
provisions as conservative Democrats, have asked some of our moderate 
Republican friends to join us on the theory, as the gentleman said 
earlier tonight, neither party has a monopoly on wisdom and virtue, and 
I think anybody who does not subscribe to that theory is fooling 
themselves. We asked for some bipartisan support on our plan. The Deal 
plan is the best plan in this Congress. You would not have had to have 
all of these amendments today you have had to put up. It is already in 
our package, if you would just give us the same consideration you ask 
from time to time from us, and it would be bipartisan. Come on over, 
read the Deal bill. If you have not, you ought to, because what we do 
in this substitute is exactly what many of you all have professed you 
want to do, and that is bring back the dignity of work to the American 
people and help them get off of welfare.
  That is what welfare reform is about. We can talk all night about 
whether there is a cut in the child school lunch program or not. It 
does not have much to do with helping someone get back to work, an 
adult, and that is what we try to do, and that is what we will do. And 
we know this: Real welfare reform has to be a Federal-State partnership 
and you cannot just block grant it and say States, here is some money, 
do the best you can with it. That will not work. That will not put 
people back to work. And that is why we got this letter today from the 
United States Conference of Mayors. They know what is going to hit them 
and they do not have the equipment or the ability to handle it, quite 
frankly, and you cannot just say block grant it and let the States do 
it any way they want to.
  We do, and we enter into a true Federal-State partnership and we 
clean up the mess here in Washington in the Deal bill before we turn it 
over to the States. And I believe, and I would ask everybody here to 
read our bill and to give us serious consideration tomorrow.
  I think you will find it is by far the best approach.
  

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