[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 54 (Thursday, March 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT

  (Mrs. FOWLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has spent $5 
trillion in the last 30 years creating a safety net for the needy. 
Unfortunately, that net has become more like a spider web--trapping the 
poor, destroying lives, and crushing hopes and dreams.
  The Personal Responsibility Act is an attempt to create a welfare 
system that really works--a system that provides a helping hand but 
also encourages work and self-reliance. This bill increases money for 
WIC and school nutrition, provides more direct resources for child care 
and child protection services, and allows resources to go directly to 
the poor--not bureaucrats. And it will end the perverse incentives that 
drive illegitimacy, destroy families, and punish work.
  The time has come for us to recognize that there is dignity in work--
not dependency--and create a welfare system that provides a hand up 
rather than a hand-out. Vote for H.R. 4.

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