[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 27, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WELFARE REFORM PRINCIPLES

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President of the United States 
outlined the principles for the reauthorization of welfare in America.
  Many years ago, Ronald Reagan spoke of the purpose of welfare, 
saying, it is not simply to provide for the needy but more than that, 
to salvage these, our fellow citizens, to make them self-sustaining and 
as quickly as possible independent of welfare.

                              {time}  1045

  I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to extol my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle and the previous administration for enacting the welfare 
reform laws of 1996. They have been an unqualified success. Half of all 
welfare recipients got real jobs since that day and age.
  Welfare reform has lifted 2.3 million children out of poverty; and, 
since 1996, we have actually reversed a decades-old explosion of out-
of-wedlock births, recognizing that a marriage is the best environment 
for escaping poverty and building strong and healthy and well-balanced 
children.
  Let us stay the course. Let us keep the purpose of welfare, so 
adequately described by President Reagan, and measure welfare success 
not by how many people arrive on welfare but by how many people leave 
it.

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