[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13751-S13752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WELFARE REFORM

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I intend to vote for the welfare reform 
bill today. It is not a perfect piece of legislation, but it does 
advance some of the issues that I think need to be advanced and begin 
some new directions that I think are necessary.
  There is no disagreement in this Chamber about the proposition that 
the current welfare system does not work very well. There ought not be 
any disagreement in this Chamber either about the fact that when we 
change our welfare system, we ought to make sure we protect America's 
children.
  There is a stereotype about welfare that is fundamentally inaccurate, 
that welfare is a woman who has 16 kids because it is profitable to 
have children; that welfare is some able-bodied person lying in a Lazy 
Boy recliner drinking beer, watching color television, and who is 
essentially slothful, indolent, and unwilling to work.
  The fact is, that is not the statistical welfare recipient. The size 
of the average welfare family is almost identical to the size of the 
average American family.
  Two-thirds of the people on welfare are kids under 16 years of age. 
As we go about trying to figure out how to change the system, we have 
to understand our obligation to protect children. We also need to 
provide the right incentives and to provide some hope to those who are 
hopeless, to extend a hand of help to those who are helpless, but also 
to say to them that welfare is temporary. We extend the hand of help 
because you need it, and it is to help you get up and out, to go get a 
job and be productive and be able to care for yourself.
  These are the kinds of incentives we want to be included in this 
welfare reform bill. We have accomplished some of those goals, some of 
those goals we have not.
  The Senator from Connecticut, who is going to speak for a couple of 
minutes, put a very important provision in this bill dealing with child 
care. That is enormously important and will allow a number of us to 
vote for this legislation. As I said, this bill is not perfect. I am 
concerned about the notion of block granting money, of wrapping up 
money and sending it to the States and saying, ``By the way, here is 
some money you didn't collect. Go ahead and spend it.''
  I am concerned about a number of other things in the bill, but I do 
think it advances the welfare reform debate as it leaves the Senate. I 
do not know whether I will vote for it when it comes back from 
conference. I hope it will come out of conference as a good welfare 
reform bill, as well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks recognition?
  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I rise in support of the welfare 
proposal that will be before us today. We have talked about it a very 
long time. Obviously, there are different views about how it should be 
implemented but, most of all, it is the first opportunity 

[[Page S13752]]
we have had in a very long time to make some changes, to make some of 
the kinds of changes that the American people asked us to make in 
November and, indeed, have been asking us to make for some time.
  It is the first opportunity in a long time to make some of the kinds 
of changes that most of us have known needed to be made for a long time 
in the welfare program. Most everyone agrees that we need a program in 
this country to help people who need help and help them back into the 
workplace. The program as it now exists has not accomplished that. 
Indeed, the program we now have has not accomplished the basic things 
we think it should accomplish.
  The provisions of this welfare proposal will allow us to encourage 
people back to work, to put in some incentives to go back to work, and 
to deal very properly with the notion of child care, with extending 
health benefits to single-parent families so that that parent can work.
  We have done this in our own Wyoming Legislature. We recognized some 
time ago that if the option was to take a minimum wage job and lose 
those benefits, then the better thing to do was stay on welfare. We 
have to change that. We do have to make some changes if we expect 
different results, and too often we all talk expansively about change; 
we want to make change; we are all for change; but when the time comes, 
we really resist change. We simply cannot expect the results to be 
different unless we do some changing, and one of the principal, most 
important changes here is to allow the States to have more flexibility, 
to allow the States to be the laboratory for developing and testing and 
creating programs that, indeed, deliver the kinds of programs needed.
  I urge my fellow Senators to vote in support of this welfare bill 
today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. DODD. I thank the Chair.
  Madam President, just very briefly regarding the welfare reform 
proposal, this is a substantially improved product from what the other 
body, the House of Representatives, has passed. It is certainly 
improved over what was originally proposed by the majority leader in 
the areas of child care, maintenance of effort, and a number of other 
areas that have been included as part of this proposal. My concern is, 
of course, that this may be the best it ever gets and that as we go to 
conference, as historically happens, you find some sort of middle 
ground between what the Senate has done and what the House of 
Representatives has done.
  If that is the case, this bill will come back to us from conference 
in a very weakened position. And so while I think there will be a 
substantial vote for the proposal today, having spoken now with a 
number of our colleagues, particularly on this side, Madam President, 
it should not be construed, if the vote is a strong vote for the Senate 
proposal, that this is some indication of a willingness to support 
whatever comes back from conference.
  In order to have intelligent welfare reform, you have to make 
investments. The distinguished Senator from New York [Mr. Moynihan], 
who, as I mentioned at the outset of this debate, knows more about 
welfare reform than most of us will ever know about the issue, has 
warned that if we do not make these investments, we are going to be 
looking down the road at a tragic situation.
  It is not enough just give the issue back to the States. The problems 
exist primarily at the local level, the city and town level. I do not 
know how many States are necessarily going to allocate resources in 
those parts of their own jurisdiction where the problems persist the 
most.
  Having said all of that, Madam President, I do not disagree with what 
my colleagues have generally said this morning, that this is a far 
better bill than what the other body has passed, a far better bill than 
was initially proposed and offered here in the Senate.
  But I would still say that we have a long way to go before this bill 
becomes the kind of proposal that not only saves money, but allows 
people to go from welfare to work and protects the 10 million children 
who could be adversely affected by these decisions.
  I yield the floor.

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