[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11033-S11034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FAIRCLOTH:
  S. 2093. A bill to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to rescind approval of the District of Columbia's welfare reform 
waiver; to the Committee on Finance.


                district of columbia welfare legislation

  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Madam President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that would rescind the approval granted in August to the District of 
Columbia's welfare waiver.
  I would first like to acknowledge and I want to recognize the 
leadership of my colleague from Oklahoma, Senator Nickles, who recently 
introduced similar legislation which would require the enforcement of a 
5-year time limit on welfare benefits in the district.
  Senator Nickles' approach requires that the District live by the 5-
year requirement. My legislation simply repeals the entire waiver.

[[Page S11034]]

  Madam President, today's Washington Post reports that the waiver was 
completed just 2 days before the welfare bill became law. In fact, on 
July 31 when the District was given notice that the President was going 
to sign the welfare bill, the District sent its waiver application in 
within one week. Now, this is the fastest anything has ever happened in 
the District of Columbia. This is the one efficient thing they have 
ever done, getting their waiver papers in. The waiver application was 
granted within 2 weeks. Now, have you ever heard of the bureaucrats at 
HHS doing anything in 2 weeks? But they got this out.
  Madam President, the whole episode is a sham. The District of 
Columbia is a flat joke that is not funny and its government is a 
laughingstock. Its welfare system is worse.
  Madam President, it is apparent that the Clinton administration is 
not serious about welfare reform. The President signed the bill with 
his fingers crossed behind his back. He signed it because, according to 
Time magazine, the man who had his ear, his political consultant guru 
and advisor, Dick Morris, told him to sign it and got him to sign it.
  It is crystal clear that should the Democrats regain control of 
Congress--which is not going to happen, but if they should--the welfare 
bill would be repealed immediately, and they as much as said so at the 
Chicago convention.
  Madam President, it has gotten so bad in the District of Columbia you 
will be able to collect welfare for 15 years--for 15 years, as long as 
you are making a good-faith effort to find work.
  Let me give you just an example or two of what finding work in the 
District of Columbia involves: Getting your driver's license is finding 
work; attending self-esteem classes is work. Now, where else in this 
country could attending self-esteem classes be called work?
  Madam President, only in the District of Columbia would such a 
laughingstock of a welfare system continue. And only with the Clinton 
administration in power could it continue. Sadly, the joke is on us. 
The joke is on the people of this Nation. The joke is on the people of 
Kansas and North Carolina. They are the ones that are subsidizing and 
paying for the District of Columbia's folly.
  We just passed a bill giving the District of Columbia $660 million. 
We do so every year. Now, how is the money used? It is not used. It is 
misused and it is thrown away at a rate that the average American could 
not understand.
  They cannot open the schools on time. Only 52 percent of high school 
students actually graduate despite the fact they spend more money per 
student than any city in the United States--52 percent graduate. The 
District has the same number of public employees as the City of 
Chicago--which is five times larger. And Chicago is 5 times larger. Can 
you imagine a city when 1 of every 8 citizens is a city employee? It's 
a disaster. It has more employees per resident than any city in the 
Nation. They don't pave their roads, and they don't fix their roads. In 
fact, they are required, by law, to have a local match for Federal road 
money. But we had to waive that, too. Why did we have to waive it? 
Because they have thrown away their money on welfare, graft, and 
giveaway programs, and they simply don't have the money to match it. 
They have thrown it away in every conceivable way, such as fake 
employees and employees that don't work. One out of every 8 citizens is 
employed. They paid Medicaid payments to 20,00 people who weren't 
eligible; 20,000 people who weren't eligible, they paid it to. The 
water is contaminated. You have to get up in the morning and boil your 
water before you can drink it.

  The prison system is notorious for its numerous escapes. In fact, it 
is not a prison system, it is a sieve. Mr. President, our capital is a 
disaster.
  Now comes the mother of all bad ideas for the capital, and that is to 
give the District a massive tax cut. The concept is that people will 
move to the district, revenue will increase, and all will be fine.
  First, the tax break will give a cushy tax break to the wealthy 
people who seek a nice tax shelter by maintaining a phony residence in 
Washington and living in Palm Beach.
  Second, it will give all the overpaid bureaucrats that live here a 
tax break. But most important, the tax cut ignores what happens to the 
revenue. Will it be somehow be better spent, or will it be wasted, 
stolen, abused, and thrown away, as it is now? Of course, it will 
because we have done nothing to get to the root of the problem, which 
is the District's government and the people running it.
  Mr. President, it has gotten so bad that a Los Angeles Times article 
on conditions in Washington opened with a quote from an Egyptian 
diplomat. He said:

       Every day here in Washington reminds me more and more of 
     Cairo.

  Doesn't that say it all? There isn't any way the city could be run 
worse.
  Mr. President, the Nation's capital is just that. It belongs to the 
Nation. It was set apart as the District of Columbia by the Founding 
Fathers so that it would not become involved in local politics, and it 
has become a mishmash of bad local politics.
  We need a capital that the people of America can be proud of, a 
capital that visitors from my State and every State can come to and 
feel safe. That isn't the case today. Rather than a massive tax cut, we 
need to seriously consider another form of government for the 
District--not home rule, not congressional rule, but input from the 50 
States who are paying for the operation of this Capital City. It should 
be one we can be proud of, and it's one that we have to make continuous 
apologies for.
  It is time for the people of this country to take control of it, as 
was intended by our forefathers. I think the sooner we do it the 
better.
                                 ______