[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WELFARE REFORM

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, on the night of January 9, while this 
city was buried under a record snowfall, President Clinton vetoed the 
welfare reform conference report by this Congress, thereby blocking 
real welfare reform. Recent news accounts suggest that an effort is 
underway to resurrect the Senate-passed welfare bill and send that to 
the President.
  I rise today to state that I would be strongly opposed to doing that. 
As I just said, Mr. President, the fact of the matter is simply this: 
The Congress has passed a bill and demonstrated its commitment to real 
welfare reform. It is time the President quit talking about welfare 
reform and demonstrate his commitment to it.
  Mr. President, the President promised to ``end welfare as we know 
it,'' but I think it is time he did a better job explaining what he 
means by ending welfare as we know it before we send him another bill.
  The welfare reform bill that President Clinton opposes takes the 
first step in 60 years of the welfare programs toward requiring that 
recipients work for their benefits.
  The welfare reform bill that President Clinton opposes takes 
important steps to stop and slow the growth in illegitimacy, which is 
the root cause of welfare dependency, and we are still subsidizing it.
  The welfare reform bill that we have passed places a 5-year limit on 
receiving benefits and consolidates the Federal welfare bureaucracy and 
returns power to the States; toughens child support enforcement laws; 
prevents noncitizens from receiving benefits; and saves working 
American taxpayers $60 billion. It was a good bill that we sent the 
President. The conference report was a good bill, and he stood up at 
the State of the Union Address and said, ``I am for welfare reform,'' 
but vetoes it.

  I voted against the Senate welfare reform bill because it excluded 
critically important illegitimacy provisions such as a family cap and a 
limit on the subsidies for children born out of wedlock. I support the 
improved conference report as it was sent to the President as a first 
step toward requiring real work from welfare recipients, reducing 
illegitimacy, and slowing the unrestrained growth of welfare spending.
  President Clinton simply does not want welfare reform by requiring 
work and reducing illegitimacy. What he means by ``welfare reform'' and 
what he meant when he said we ``misunderstood him,'' what he meant when 
he said he was going to ``end welfare as we have known it,'' was that 
he was going to put more money into it than we ever heard of, he was 
going to hire more people to administer the program, and he was going 
to put more people on the welfare program. That is what he means by 
ending welfare as we have known it.
  I urge my colleagues in both Houses to stand by the welfare reform 
conference report, let the President come forward with his version of 
welfare reform before we retreat from a good product and a year's work. 
Let him bring us one.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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