[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 79 (Monday, June 7, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S6461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WELFARE REFORM

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, the other matter I wanted to bring up 
is the amendment to the DOD authorization bill which lost on a 50-49 
vote. I don't know whether I will do an amendment on this bill or 
whether I will wait for the bankruptcy bill, but my amendment had to do 
with the compelling need for all of us as responsible policymakers to 
do some systematic and systemic evaluation of what is going on with 
welfare reform.
  I want to know about those mothers and those children. I have come to 
the floor and I have said it is fine that we have reduced the caseload 
by a third, or thereabouts, but the question is; has the reduction in 
welfare led to a reduction in poverty? Where are the women and 
children? What kind of jobs do they have? What kind of wages do they 
earn? Is there decent child care?
  I bring to the attention of my colleagues the General Accounting 
Office report of May 27, 1999, and I point out a quote on page 2 at the 
beginning of this report:

       Because there are no Federal requirements for States to 
     report on the status of former welfare recipients, the only 
     systematic data currently available on families who have left 
     welfare come from research efforts initiated by States to 
     meet their own information needs.

  Then they go on to point out that only States currently provide 
adequate data. So I will be coming to the floor again and taking up a 
considerable amount of time. I will be drawing from a lot of reports 
about some pretty brutal conditions, because I am determined to win 
this vote. I really do believe that it is not too much to ask that the 
Senate--for that matter, the House of Representatives--go on record 
calling on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to call on States 
to provide the data as to what is happening to these families. Yes, 
they are poor families, and I understand that sometimes to be poor and 
to be on welfare is to be despised in America, but I think we ought to 
know what is going on with these women and children. That is what we 
are talking about--women and children.

  So I thought, since I had a moment, I would announce that maybe on 
this bill, or maybe on the next bill, I am going to come back with this 
amendment, and I will bring out some of the important reports by the 
Conference of Mayors, the Catholic Church's Network Organization, which 
has done some wonderful work, and what the Conference of State 
Legislatures is saying, and the reports on the rise of homelessness 
with a special emphasis on the population of women and children. Then, 
after going through all of that, and also talking about some of my own 
observations as a Senator who has done a lot of work with low- and 
moderate-income people, one more time, I will call on the Senate to 
vote for this very reasonable amendment.
  We ought to know what is going on in the country. It is irresponsible 
for us not to have the information to see whether or not this 
legislation is really working. I say that because pretty soon, over the 
next couple of years, we are going to reach a drop-dead date where, in 
all of the States--5 years being the maximum period of time from when 
we pass this bill--everybody is going to be driven off the rolls. There 
is going to be no assistance any longer. Of course, we are talking 
about a lot of women who have been battered, who have struggled with 
substance abuse, and who have struggled with mental illness. It is not 
clear whether they are going to be able to work or what will happen to 
them and their children. It is not at all clear what is happening right 
now to some women and children in this country. Have we made it 
possible for them to move to economic self-sufficiency, to live more 
independent lives?
  I say to the Chair, who cares an awful lot about children, are these 
children better off? We need to know. I want to bring to the attention 
of my colleagues that I want to come back with this amendment, and I am 
hoping that a couple of Senators, this time around, will be willing to 
vote for it on a different piece of legislation.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________