[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 199 (Thursday, December 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WELFARE REFORM MUST NOT PUNISH CHILDREN

  (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a great deal of inside-the-
beltway talk during the welfare reform debate about family caps, block 
grants, and maintenance of effort.
  But I tell you, my friends, we have not heard much about the 
children. Let me lay out the facts plain and clear.
  By shredding the safety net--by ending for the first time in 60 years 
the Federal guarantee of assistance for poor children--The Gingrich 
welfare bill will push at least 1.2 million more children into poverty, 
1.2 million more children into poverty.
  The bill tells children: If you're poor, don't get sick; don't get 
hungry; don't get cold because we don't think you're important. And, we 
don't want to guarantee that you have health care; food, and general 
assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, welfare reform is not supposed to be about punishing 
poor children.
  It should be about improving their lives by giving their parents the 
education, job training, and child care needed to get a job and get off 
welfare permanently.

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