[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 8 (Wednesday, February 6, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TANF REAUTHORIZATION

  (Mrs. MINK of Hawaii asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, this year we will be working on the 
reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known 
as TANF. It was a rewrite of the welfare law that we had previously 
enacted called Aid to Dependent Children. One of the major differences 
of the two concepts was in the old bill we cared about what happened to 
the families and to the children. That was our primary purpose. Under 
TANF it is a 5-year restricted cash assistance to families with the 
primary emphasis on going to work.
  What has happened is that the rolls of welfare have dropped, but 
poverty has remained the same. What we are trying to do in the bill 
that I have introduced which has 57 sponsors is to put the emphasis on 
caregiving. It has always been the high principle of Congress to say 
families count first, the responsibilities of families to nurture their 
own children. We want to put that at the top, as the emphasis of this 
new reauthorization: caring for children, allowing parents to stay home 
to care for their small children and giving them support to build their 
families' economic future through education. Education must count and 
be equivalent to work.

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