[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H592-H593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     GOVERNORS HAVE RESPONSIBILITY TO IMPLEMENT WELFARE REFORM LAW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997 the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, many of this Nation's 
governors are amazing. For the last 2 years they have been coming to 
Washington and telling anyone who would listen that they could reform 
the welfare system with one hand behind their back. They said they 
could do more for less, better than the Federal Government ever thought 
it could.
  They went from Meet the Press, to committee hearings, to Nightline, 
saying to whoever would listen that they were the only ones who knew 
how to reform the system and had the courage to make the tough 
decisions. When asked about legal immigrants and about moving people to 
work, about a safety net for children, their answer was always the 
same: Leave it to us. The States are the great laboratories of the 
1990's.
  Well, the ink is barely dry on the Welfare Reform Act and now the 
Governors are back here whining about the welfare bill that they 
designed. Why do these Governors remind me of Riddick Bowe? They have 
spent less time living with the welfare reform law than Riddick Bowe 
did with the U.S. Marines. Riddick said his problem was the lack of 
flexibility. The Governors are suggesting that their problem is too 
much flexibility. They are responsible for too much of the welfare 
caseload.
  Excuse me, we gave them the block grant that they asked for, 
calculated on the high welfare years of 1994. Many are already taking 
credit, along with the President, for causing the number of welfare 
recipients to drop by over 2 million. So why do they not take some of 
the savings and help provide for legal immigrants, to put some people 
to work, provide job training and child care for those single mothers 
who want to go to work? Rather than doing that, they are back to 
Washington asking for a Federal bailout.
  Who do they think we are: The tax collectors for the State welfare 
state? The Governors have a responsibility to do what they have asked 
for the authority to do, to move people from welfare to work and to do 
it now. It means education, job training, child care, and health care 
in support of those people who want to go to work.
  As problems occur, after all the sectors have made a good faith 
effort, then Congress can consider suggestions for change. But now they 
have the revenue in the first few years to carry out welfare reform if 
the economy stays

[[Page H593]]

healthy. They should follow the lead of the President and get the 
private sector to go where it has never gone before, making the free 
enterprise system accountable for providing livable wages for all of 
America's families.

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