[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WELFARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] is recognized for five 
minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I have said maybe on two occasions today 
that this is one of the most important debates that this 104th Congress 
will be engaged in, and it is important for us to understand what we 
are about to do here.
  I know there are a lot of unhappy folks in this country, unhappy 
about the fact that there are too many families and too many children 
on welfare. I know that most people want change.
  We must be fair in our representations about who wants change. 
Republicans want change. Democrats want change. Workers want change, 
and recipients want change. I think it is one thing that we can agree 
on.
  No one has the corner on wanting reform. We would all like to see 
reform in the system, and it is absolutely incorrect to say that the 
President or Democrats did not have a bill, did nothing about reform.
  The President had a comprehensive piece of legislation that he 
attempted to get into this Congress, the 103d Congress, and we got 
caught up in the health debate, and it turned into a nightmare, and 
there was not the opportunity to move on welfare reform as the 
President had planned. So it is not true that the President did not 
want welfare reform.
  The difference between the Democrat and Republicans is the question 
of implementation. How will we do welfare reform? Will it be a plan 
that will offer real opportunities for people to get off welfare or 
will it simply be a plan to punish folks because for whatever reasons 
they have found themselves on welfare?
  I think it is time for us to try and speak about this in a language 
that the American public can understand. No, they don't really 
understand block grants and waivers.
  Let's put a face on this discussion. We are talking about, for the 
most part, just plain old poor people and working people. We are 
talking about people, some of whom were born into situations through no 
choice of their own that keeps them locked into the cycle of poverty, 
and there have been no real guidelines, rules by which they can get out 
of the cycle of poverty.
  We have some folks who work everyday, and they are poor. They can't 
take care of their families. They need food stamps. They need some help 
with their health care needs.
  And so these are real people. These are not pawns that should be used 
by politicians to gain favor with people who are very vulnerable at 
this time. This should not simply be a political issue where some 
politician stands up and says vote for me. I am going to save you 
money. I am going to get rid of all these bad people.
  And we should not have politicians simply defining all of America's 
problems by talking about the welfare state. And we certainly should 
not have politicians who talk about taking America's children and 
putting them in institutions, in orphanages.
  We need to talk about these problems in a real way. Yes, there are 
teenage pregnancies, too many of them, and most of us don't like the 
idea that babies have babies. But we live in a society where sex is 
glamorized, where it is promoted, where it is expected. In order for 
young women to be looked upon with favor, they must be sexual. Young 
women are sought after by young men and old men, some of them in their 
neighborhoods, some out of their neighborhoods, some of them who are 
poor young men who have not very much to offer, some of them 
politicians and others. We know what is going on in American society.
  We need sex education. We need jobs. Jobs have been exported to Third 
World countries for cheap labor. We need jobs for educated people and 
not-so-educated people. We need a better education system. We need to 
deal with the root causes of this problem, and we need to build into 
welfare reform the real opportunity for people to become independent by 
offering real jobs, job training and child care.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman's time has expired.
  

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