[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S13885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             WELFARE REFORM

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate concluded several weeks 
of debate on welfare reform legislation. The changes that were 
incorporated in the legislation are profound, marking a great departure 
from the system that has been in place for 60 years. As one who has 
served my State of Rhode Island and this Nation as a U.S. Senator from 
35 of those 60 years, I did not take lightly the vote that I cast 
yesterday. I thought long and hard about the desire for change, for 
reform, and for a better welfare system, and I share all of those 
goals.
  As I look at the bill, I remain concerned. It does not provide nearly 
enough of what I think is necessary for quality welfare reform. And it 
does not sufficiently protect our children or provide adults with the 
tools they need to move off of welfare and into work.
  But the final bill was also a drastic improvement over the House 
welfare legislation, and, with the addition of the Dole-Daschle 
compromise, moves us more in the direction that I think is best for our 
Nation. So while it was with some reluctance, I decided to cast my vote 
in favor of the legislation that was before us yesterday. I did so with 
the understanding that the American people want and demand action, and 
are seeking a new way of accomplishing what the existing system has not 
been able to accomplish. I am willing to try a new way, but acknowledge 
freely that without the minimal protections put into place by the Dole-
Daschle agreement with respect to child care and other important 
provisions, I would not have voted ``yea.''
  I cannot help but hope that the conference committee will see fit to 
incorporate more of the provisions contained in the Work First proposal 
introduced by Senator Daschle, which I cosponsored. I still support and 
strongly prefer its provisions--its emphasis on transitioning welfare 
recipients to work, its understanding that providing child care is a 
linchpin of successful reform, and its premise that--despite very real 
abuses of the current system by some welfare recipients--most people 
want to get off welfare and work at a job that provides a living wage. 
But I realize that the conference committee is more likely to move this 
bill in a direction that I cannot support, by being more punitive to 
parents and, in the process, harming children who have not chosen their 
parents or their circumstances.
  Mr. President, it would be my intention, should the bill return from 
the conference committee stripped of these moderating provisions, or 
including any of the more draconian provisions we defeated during the 
Senate debate, to cast my vote against the conference report. I hope 
that this will not be necessary and that we will be able to pass a 
conference report that really does move the Nation in the direction 
that we all want to see--toward workable reform that moves this 
generation off of dependency while ensuring that the next generation 
does not suffer for its parents' failures or misfortunes.


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