[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9604-S9605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY:
  S. 2043. A bill to require the implementation of a corrective action 
plan in States in which child poverty has increased; to the Committee 
on Finance.


                       CHILD POVERTY LEGISLATION

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, the welfare bill we passed this week would 
allow States to experiment with various welfare policies. Many States 
may implement innovative welfare policies to move parents from welfare 
to work. But if we are sending Federal money to States, if we are going 
to take this risk and allow States to experiment, we must be sure that 
child poverty does not increase.
  There is nothing more important than constantly reminding ourselves 
that our focus is--or ought to be--this Nation's children. That was the 
focus when under Franklin Roosevelt's leadership title IV-A of the 
Social Security Act was originally enacted. The objective here is to 
help impoverished children.
  This bill I am introducing today says that if child poverty increases 
in a State after the date of enactment of the welfare bill, then that 
State would be required to submit a corrective action plan. Although a 
weaker version of my bill passed and was included in the welfare bill, 
I am introducing this as a separate bill in the hope that ultimately we 
will be able to pass the strongest possible version.
  What would this bill do? This bill says that if the most recent State 
child poverty rate exceeds the level for the previous year by 5 percent 
or more then the State would have to submit to the HHS Secretary within 
90 days a corrective action plan describing the actions the state shall 
take to reduce child poverty rates.
  Mr. President, I want to be clear that this bill in no way intrudes 
on a State's ability to design its own welfare program. State 
flexibility would not be decreased in any way. This bill simply says 
that if a state's welfare system increases child poverty, that state 
must take corrective action.
  Mr. President, I believe all of us regardless of party can agree on 
two things at least: We can all agree that the child poverty rate in 
this country is too high. The fact is that 15.3 million U.S. children 
live in poverty. This

[[Page S9605]]

means that more than 1 in 5 children--21.8 percent--live in poverty. In 
Massachusetts, there are more than 176,000 children who live in 
poverty. And despite the stereotypes, Mr. President, the majority of 
America's poor children are white (9.3 million) and live in rural or 
suburban areas (8.4 million) rather than central cities (6.9 million).
  The other thing on which we can all agree, because it is a fact 
rather than an opinion, is that the child poverty rate in this country 
is dramatically higher than the rate in other major industrialized 
countries. According to an excellent, comprehensive recent report by an 
international research group called the Luxembourg Income Study, the 
child poverty rate in the United Kingdom is less than half our rate 
(9.9 percent), the rate in France is less than one-third of our rate 
(6.5 percent), and the rate in Denmark (3.3 percent) is about one-sixth 
our rate.
  Mr. President, we know that poverty is bad for children. This should 
be obvious. Nobel prizewinning economist Robert Solow and the 
Children's Defense Fund recently conducted the first-ever long-term 
impact of child poverty. They found that their lowest estimate was that 
the future cost to society of a single year of poverty for the 15 
million poor children is $36 billion in lost output per worker. When 
they included lost work hours, lower skills, and other labor market 
disadvantages related to poverty, they found that the future cost to 
society was $177 billion.
  With this bill, I want to make sure that, at the very least, if a 
State's welfare plan increases child poverty--instead of increasing the 
number of parents moving from welfare to work and self-sufficiency--
that State will take immediate steps to refocus its program.
  Mr. President, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill to 
ensure that welfare reform results in more parents working, not more 
child poverty.
                                 ______