[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5101-S5102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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               LET'S WORK TOGETHER TO PASS WELFARE REFORM

 Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, President Clinton recently issued 
an executive order restricting welfare benefits to teenage parents. I 
commend the President for taking this action to change welfare as we 
know it. His work demonstrates his strong commitment to welfare reform. 
We in Congress should build on his action by quickly passing a tough 
bipartisan welfare reform plan.
  There is no doubt about the dramatic increase in births to unmarried 
teens. It is clear that we must take aggressive and immediate action to 
address this serious problem.
  The Clinton administration would change welfare policy to keep teen 
parents in school, require teen parents to sign personal responsibility 
contracts and require minor mothers to live at home. While this 
executive order is not the comprehensive overhaul of the welfare system 
that I feel is needed, it addresses a critical concern--the increase of 
births to unmarried teenagers. It is a good place to start.
  Just last month, the Iowa welfare reform waiver was modified to 
institute similar changes. In the future, minor parents in Iowa will be 
required to stay in school and earn a high school diploma or GED and to 
live with their parents or another responsible adult. These changes 
will help build a welfare system that requires responsibility, 
strengthens families, and promotes independence by making families 
self-sufficient.
  Without at least a high school education, welfare parents are unable 
to get decent jobs that will make the family self-sufficient. 
Therefore, too many young families are consigned to years of welfare 
dependency because the parents do not possess the basic skills 
necessary to get and keep a job. By requiring minor parents to stay in 
school to earn a diploma or GED, we begin to break this devastating 
cycle of dependency.
  Further, too many minor parents go out and establish separate 
households when a child is born. Unfortunately many of these young 
parents are still children themselves and do not possess the skills to 
properly raise their children. By requiring these minors to remain with 
their own parents or live with another responsible adult, the young 
family will be in a more secure environment which will produce a stable 
family rather than a welfare dependent family for years to come.
  Since January 1994, all Iowa welfare recipients, not just teen 
parents, have been required to sign family investment agreements which 
outline the steps the family will take to move off of welfare and a 
date at which time welfare benefits would end. The Clinton personal 
responsibility contract requirement is modeled on the family investment 
agreement which is working very well in Iowa.
  Mr. President, as I have discussed many times before, Iowa instituted 
a statewide reform of the welfare system in October 1993. Since then, 
more families are working and earning income, the number of families on 
welfare has been declining and the amount of money spent on cash grant 
is down. In short, welfare reform is working in Iowa. In 1993 and 1995, 
Senator Bond and I introduced a common sense bipartisan reform plan 
based on the good work being done in Iowa and in Missouri on reforming 
welfare.

  Mr. President, in February, the National Governors Association 
announced a bipartisan agreement on welfare reform. At that time, I 
viewed the proposal as the vehicle to jump-start the congressional 
debate on welfare reform and restore bipartisanship to the process. 
This does not seem to be happening and I am very frustrated by that 
reality.
  There is no doubt that the current welfare system is badly broken and 
in desperate need of repair. Further, there is no question that there 
is strong, bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate for welfare reform 
legislation. I still hold out hope that we can and will enact 
bipartisan welfare reform legislation during the remaining days of the 
104th Congress.
  The current dependency inducing welfare system must be replaced with 
one that promotes independence and self-sufficiency. One that sends the 
clear message to families on welfare that if you can work, you must 
work. One that requires every family to take responsibility, from day 
one on welfare, to begin the journey off of welfare and into self-
sufficient employment.
  There is overwhelming support in the Senate for this kind of 
commonsense welfare reform. This support was demonstrated last fall 
when 87 Senators voted for a bipartisan bill to reform welfare.
  Mr. President, the American people desperately want us to address the 
major problems facing our country and stop the political game playing.
  We should take the Senate passed plan backup, amend it to adhere to 
some of the key recommendations of the National Governors Association 
such as increased funding for child care, and pass it. We clearly have 
an overwhelming bipartisan majority to do that. That's the clearest way 
to get comprehensive welfare reform signed into law this year.
  Leaders in the House of Representatives have spoken in favor of 
taking up the Senate bill. The President has said he could support the 
Senate bill and has said good things about the NGA plan. So it is very 
clear that there is a path available to us to enact welfare reform. We 
should take it, and quickly.
  Mr. President, I am very concerned, however, that some seem to want 
to take a different course--one that is clearly destined to result in 
more gridlock, political fingerpointing and no welfare reform. The 
budget resolution passed out of the Budget Committee ties welfare 
reform to a poison pill--elimination of guarantees for elderly people 
in nursing homes to continued coverage of their care through Medicaid. 
By block granting and severely cutting Medicaid, health care for 
pregnant women and children would also be placed on the chopping block. 
And the President has rightly said that this is wrong and would force 
him to veto a bill that contained it.
  In an effort to clear the path for enactment of welfare reform, I 
will be offering an amendment to the budget resolution that would take 
out the poison pill. My amendment will require consideration of welfare 
reform separate from ending guaranteed coverage for health care to 
millions of elderly and other Americans. This is the only hope for 
welfare reform this year. So I hope that all of my colleagues who share 
my support for comprehensive welfare reform will join me in support of 
this amendment.
  I look forward to working with all of my colleagues on this and other 
important issues during the remainder of this session and ask that a 
summary of the executive order be printed in the Record.
  The summary follows:

                   Executive Action on Welfare Reform

  Today, President Clinton announced four measures to make 
responsibility the law of the land, by ensuring that teen mothers on 
welfare stay in school and live at home. These four executive actions 
include requiring all States to submit plans for requiring teen mothers 
to stay in school and prepare for employment; cutting through redtape 
to allow States to pay cash bonuses to teen mothers who finish high 
school;

[[Page S5102]]

requiring all States to have teen mothers who have dropped out of 
school return to school and sign personal responsibility plans; and 
challenging all States to require minor mothers to live with a 
responsible adult. With these actions, we're focusing on one of the key 
components of welfare reform: parental responsibility. And we're 
putting young mothers on the right path, toward employment and self-
sufficiency.


                requiring teen mothers to stay in school

  Currently, 26 States require teen parents to stay in school to 
receive assistance, 23 under waivers approved by the Clinton 
administration. Ohio, for example, has a model program called LEAP: 
Learning, Earning, and Parenting. LEAP reduces checks of teen mothers 
when they don't go to school, and pays them a bonus when they do. Other 
States are trying similar approaches with our support. For example, 
Delaware reduces benefits for truancy, and pays teen mothers a $50 
bonus when they graduate from high school. Colorado pays bonuses when 
teen mothers graduate from high school or receive a GED.
  These States are putting teen mothers on the right path, toward 
employment and self-sufficiency--and all 50 States around the country 
should follow their lead. That's why the President is directing all 
States to submit plans to require school attendance among teens who 
receive welfare. And to be sure they do, the Department of Health and 
Human Services will do annual surveys of their success.


    allowing states to reward teen mothers who complete high school

  Today, President Clinton is also cutting through redtape to allow 
States to reward teen mothers who stay in school and complete high 
school, in addition to sanctioning those who don't. States would be 
able to give teen mothers cash bonuses for strong school attendance, 
graduating from high school, or GED receipt--without requesting a 
waiver.


      requiring teen mothers to sign personal responsibility plans

  Today, the Clinton administration is requiring all 50 States to 
ensure that teen mothers on welfare who have dropped out of school both 
return to school and sign personal responsibility plans. These actions 
will help teen mothers plan for their futures and turn their lives 
around.


                requiring minor mothers to live at home

  Under current law, States have the option to require minor mothers to 
live at home--but only 21 States have such requirements, 11 initiated 
under waivers granted by the Clinton administration and 10 adopted 
under the State option. Today, the Clinton administration is 
challenging all 50 States to put minor mothers on the right track by 
requiring them to live at home or with a responsible adult in order to 
receive assistance.


                      ending welfare as we know it

  The President's goals for welfare reform are clear: requiring work, 
promoting responsibility, and protecting children. With this new 
initiative, President Clinton underscores his commitment to helping 
welfare recipients become--and stay--self-sufficient. President Clinton 
continues to call for a national welfare reform bill that gets these 
priorities right. Under welfare reform waivers, we've already freed 37 
States from redtape to pursue innovative welfare reforms--more than 
under any previous administration. State welfare demonstrations 
approved by the Clinton administration now cover 75 percent of all 
welfare recipients nationwide.

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