[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 7 (Monday, January 22, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1995--VETO MESSAGE 
     FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 104-164)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following veto 
message from the President of the United States:

To the House of Representatives:
  I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 4, the ``Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1995.'' In disapproving H.R. 
4, I am nevertheless determined to keep working with the Congress to 
enact real, bipartisan welfare reform. The current welfare system is 
broken and must be replaced, for the sake of the taxpayers who pay for 
it and the people who are trapped by it. But H.R. 4 does too little to 
move people from welfare to work. It is burdened with deep budget cuts 
and structural changes that fall short of real reform. I urge the 
Congress to work with me in good faith to produce a bipartisan welfare 
reform agreement that is tough on work and responsibility, but not 
tough on children and on parents who are responsible and who want to 
work.
  The Congress and the Administration are engaged in serious 
negotiations toward a balanced budget that is consistent with our 
priorities--one of which is to ``reform welfare,'' as November's 
agreement between Republicans and Democrats made clear. Welfare reform 
must be considered in the context of other critical and related issues 
such as Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Americans know we 
have to reform the broken welfare system, but they also know that 
welfare reform is about moving people from welfare to work, not playing 
budget politics.
  The Administration has and will continue to set forth in detail our 
goals for reform and our objections to this legislation. The 
Administration strongly supported the Senate Democratic and House 
Democratic welfare reform bills, which ensured that States would have 
the resources and incentives to move people from welfare to work and 
that children would be protected. I strongly support time limits, work 
requirements, the toughest possible child support enforcement, and 
requiring minor mothers to live at home as a condition of assistance, 
and I am pleased that these central elements of my approach have been 
addressed in H.R. 4.
  We remain ready at any moment to sit down in good faith with 
Republicans and Democrats in the Congress to work out an acceptable 
welfare reform plan that is motivated by the urgency of reform rather 
than by a budget plan that is contrary to America's values. There is a 
bipartisan consensus around the country on the fundamental elements of 
real welfare reform, and it would be a tragedy for this Congress to 
squander this historic opportunity to achieve it. It is essential for 
the Congress to address shortcomings in the legislation in the 
following areas:
  --Work and Child Care: Welfare reform is first and foremost about 
    work. H.R. 4 weakens several important work provisions that are 
    vital to welfare reform's success. The final welfare reform 
    legislation should provide sufficient child care to enable 
    recipients to leave welfare for work; reward States for placing 
    people in jobs; restore the guarantee of health coverage for poor 
    families; require States to maintain their stake in moving people 
    from welfare to work; and protect States and families in the event 
    of economic downturn and population growth. In addition, the 
    Congress should abandon efforts included in the budget 
    reconciliation bill that would gut the Earned Income Tax Credit, a 
    powerful work incentive that is enabling hundreds of thousands of 
    families to choose work over welfare.
  --Deep Budget Cuts and Damaging Structural Changes: H.R. 4 was 
    designed to meet an arbitrary budget target rather than to achieve 
    serious reform. The legislation makes damaging structural changes 
    and deep budget cuts that would fall hardest on children and 
    undermine States' ability to move people from welfare to work. We 
    should work together to balance the budget and reform welfare, but 
    the Congress should not use the words ``welfare reform'' as a cover 
    to violate the Nation's values. Making $60 billion in budget cuts 
    and massive structural changes in a variety of programs, including 
    foster care and adoption assistance, help for disabled children, 
    legal immigrants, food stamps, and school lunch is not welfare 
    reform. The final welfare reform legislation should reduce the 
    magnitude of these budget cuts and the sweep of structural changes 
    that have little connection to the central goal of work-based 
    reform. We must demand responsibility from young mothers and young 
    fathers, not penalize children for their parents' mistakes. I am 
    deeply committed to working with the Congress to reach bipartisan 
    agreement on an acceptable welfare reform bill that addresses these 
    and other concerns. We owe it to the people who sent us here not to 
    let this opportunity slip away by doing the wrong thing or failing 
    to act at all.
                                                  William J. Clinton.  
  The White House, January 9, 1996.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The objections of the President will be 
spread at large upon the Journal, and the message and bill will be 
printed as a House document.
  Mr. BUNNING of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
the message together with the accompanying bill be referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Kentucky?
  There was no objection.

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