[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 18 (Thursday, February 24, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S778-S779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TANF SURPLUS SHOULD FIGHT POVERTY

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, there was a press conference today held 
by the National Campaign for Jobs and Income. There were some very 
dramatic findings reported. This is directly relevant to the debate we 
were having with the majority leader. They reported today in a 
prosperous country, we still have about 35 million poor Americans and 
13 million of those Americans are children. They reported that while 
the administration and other Senators and Representatives boast about 
having cut the welfare rolls in half, we actually have just made a 
small, hardly any, dent in reducing poverty.
  Remember, the goal of the welfare bill was to move people from 
welfare to economic self-sufficiency.
  They report that the poorest children in America are getting poorer. 
That is worth repeating: The poorest children in America are getting 
poorer.
  They report there is a whole group of people, mothers and children, 
remaining in poverty. Many are families under tremendous stress and 
strain. Perhaps a mother has struggled with substance abuse; a mother 
who is a single parent has a severely disabled child; a mother has been 
battered, beaten up over and over again. About every 13 seconds in 
America, a woman is battered in her home.
  There is precious little evidence these families will be able to move 
to work. Pretty soon, depending on the State, they will be pushed off a 
cliff.

[[Page S779]]

 We have no safety net left as a result of the welfare bill.
  They report there is not one State in the country where the average 
earnings is even close to the poverty level income. The vast majority 
of the jobs are barely above minimum-wage jobs, and after 1 year the 
families lose their health care coverage and are not able to get good 
child care for their children, sometimes not any child care.

  Given those findings, I think it should give Members pause that we 
are actually seeing an increase in the poverty of the poorest children 
in America; it should give Members pause.
  It is amazing that State governments with the TANF money have about 
$7 billion they have not spent--$7 billion. There are all the needs for 
affordable child care, for training, especially for additional support 
services for families that are under unbelievable strain, are mainly 
women and children in need of affordable housing, sometimes 
transportation. All of this compelling need and these families are 
under tremendous pressure trying to survive under very difficult 
conditions, and the money we have allocated to these States, $7 
billion, is not being spent. Albeit, some of it can be put in a rainy 
day fund and maybe should be because who knows if the business cycle 
will stay up forever.
  Six States--Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and 
Wisconsin--transferred $800 million from the TANF surpluses to funding 
programs other than those that serve poor families. Quite often it ends 
up as general tax rebates, not to the poor. This year, Minnesota is 
doing much better with the TANF money. Last year, I am not proud of 
what the Minnesota Government did.
  My point is simple:
  No. 1, the amount of unspent TANF money in the States has reached $7 
billion, an enormous amount of money.
  No. 2, this money has been unspent despite the persistent level of 
poverty that exists in our country, especially among women and 
children. And for children, the poorest of poor children, their poverty 
has increased and some of the States are not spending the money to help 
them.
  No. 3, these low-income families are not receiving the services and 
the support they need to move out of poverty, which is what this bill 
was supposed to be all about.
  No. 4, although some States are developing innovative programs, other 
States are diverting TANF money to pay for tax cuts or other programs 
that are not even targeted to the poor.
  No. 5, in a time of unprecedented economic growth, there are all 
sorts of ways in which the States could be using this money to invest 
in children, to make sure that families can move from welfare to 
economic self-sufficiency, and they are not.
  Conclusion: Don't we write the checks? Doesn't this money come from 
the Congress and the Federal Government? I think we have the 
responsibility to ensure that the States are spending the TANF money in 
ways that meet the goals of the program, which is to move families out 
of welfare into jobs so they can support themselves.
  We should insist that the TANF money is spent to help struggling 
families--not put into a surplus, or not to be given back as tax 
rebates to citizens across the board. I think it is an abuse of the 
program.
  In this TANF reauthorization, that will be my work as a Senator. I 
hope other Senators will join. I oppose the bill. I am glad I oppose 
the bill. Those in favor of the bill should be the first to want to 
make sure the money is spent the way it is supposed to be spent. We 
should insist on accountability.
  Second, I will come back with an amendment. That is what the debate 
with the majority leader is about. I am a Senator most vocal about 
having the right to bring amendments to this bill. I want an amendment 
that says we should have a policy evaluation of what is happening to 
the poor children.
  Don't tell me that is not relevant to their education, but it 
wouldn't be relevant to this piece of legislation as defined by the 
definition of ``relevant.'' It would be an amendment, and I do not have 
a right to offer that amendment--so says the majority leader.
  But this is compelling. The poverty of children is compelling. The 
poverty of the poorest of children is compelling. As a Senator who 
spent most of his adult life working in many of these communities, I 
want to have some amendments that deal with the poverty of children and 
I want to have the right to introduce those amendments to this bill. As 
a Senator from Minnesota, I don't want to continue to be shut out, by 
the majority, of my right to come out here and fight for people. 
Basically, that has been the strategy for almost this whole last year.
  I hope Democrats will, basically, not let themselves be rolled. I 
hope Democrats will say: As Democrats, as the minority party, we are 
going to insist on the same rights as the minority party had when we 
were the majority. It is a very important principle. But it is not just 
insider politics. It is all about whether or not, when you go home to 
your State and meet with people, and you know their problems, you want 
to do better for people--it is whether or not you can be a legislator 
and come out here with amendments and debate and fight for people for 
whom you want to fight. So if there is no agreement, I certainly hope 
the Democrats will support one another on what I think is a very 
important question.
  Back to the substantive issue, I hope my colleagues will take a look 
at what is being done to this welfare bill with this TANF money. We 
have some troubling data from which we cannot turn our gaze. Most of 
these families who are now working, 670,000 people, are no longer 
covered by medical assistance since this bill was passed because after 
1 year they are off. Hardly any of these mothers have living-wage jobs. 
We just had a report a few weeks ago that the child care situation for 
their children ranges from dangerous to barely adequate. Just because 
they are poor children does not mean they are not entitled to good 
child care.
  We have had this dramatic decline in food stamp participation. We 
have no idea why. It is certainly not because there has been much of a 
decrease in poverty. We see the rise of hunger and the use of food 
shelves in our country. But the States have $7 billion they are sitting 
on. They came here and said: Trust us, just give us the money; we will 
do the best with it.
  But quite often low-income families, poor families, whether they are 
people of color or white people, do not have much clout. It is up to us 
to say: We are a national community. There are certain values we hold 
dear. There are certain things as a national community we hold dear. 
One of them is, by gosh, there are going to be some standards everyone 
is going to have to meet because whether a child eats or not, whether 
or not there is decent housing, whether or not a family is able to make 
ends meet, whether or not children are able to look forward to a good 
life, should not depend on the State in which they live.
  We make a commitment as a national community, especially to the most 
vulnerable citizens in our country, who are children, who are poor 
children.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Florida is recognized.

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