[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 108 (Thursday, August 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7941-S7942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. MURRAY (for herself and Mr. Wellstone):
  S. 2876. A bill to amend part A of title IV of the Social Security 
Act to promote secure and healthy families under the temporary 
assistance to needy families program, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President since the 1996 welfare reform, our nation 
has experienced one of the longest economic booms in history, but 
families are still struggling to make ends meet, and children are still 
living in poverty.
  Now, with the recession, working families are facing even more 
barriers on the path toward self-sufficiency, and states are struggling 
to maintain their existing programs. In my own state of Washington, 
we've seen the results of the recession: good jobs are more difficult 
to find, welfare rolls are up, and state budget cuts have taken a chunk 
out of childcare and other critical supports for our most disadvantaged 
families. It is with this in mind that I introduce Senate bill S. 2876, 
the Secure and Healthy Families Act of 2002.
  The Secure and Healthy Families Act will help build on the successes 
of welfare reform. This bill gives us an important opportunity to 
reaffirm that we value America's families and that we will protect our 
children. This bill takes what we know from our own experiences as 
parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and what research has proven 
to be effective to help us move toward the goal of building healthy 
families. It does not impose inflexible top-down strategies. Instead, 
it allows states to support work and engage families on assistance. It 
will help build secure and healthy families in a number of ways.
  First, this legislation will create the Promoting Healthy Families 
Fund that enables the Secretary of HHS to fund state activities to 
promote and support secure families. For example, the fund would 
support state and local efforts to provide family counseling, income 
enhancement programs for working poor families--like the successful 
Minnesota Family Investment Program, or teen pregnancy prevention 
programs that help young people avoid the poverty that often comes with 
these unplanned pregnancies.
  Second, this act will ensure states recognize that secure and healthy 
families come in all shapes and sizes. The federal government has long 
led the way in opposing discrimination, and this bill will continue 
that critical role.
  Next, this bill puts in place several provisions to help the parents 
build a better future for themselves and their children. The bill 
encourages teen parents to remain in school by not counting the time 
that they are in school against their five-year lifetime limit. Under 
this legislation, a teen mother would also be given the chance to get 
on her feet, get settled in school, and find a safe place for her and 
her baby to live without losing assistance.
  Mr. President, in families where children are chronically ill or 
disabled, parents are confronted with special challenges. Most cannot 
find appropriate affordable care, and cannot leave sick and vulnerable 
children alone. They run from the doctor's office and emergency rooms--
trying to keep their jobs while dealing with the sudden and frequent 
life-threatening health problems that these children face. This bill 
would offer support for these families by recognizing that full time 
care of a chronically sick or disabled child is hard work, and by 
giving parents the opportunity to meet their children's special needs.
  The bill also strengthens support for those families who are victims 
of domestic or sexual violence. We know that as many as 70 percent of 
welfare recipients are or have been victims of domestic violence. This 
bills sends a clear message to states that they must protect there 
vulnerable families in several ways including: having comprehensive 
standards and procedures to address domestic and sexual violence, 
training caseworkers so that they are sensitive to the unique needs of 
victims of domestic violence, and informing survivors of domestic and 
family violence of the existing protections to ensure their privacy and 
safety.
  Most states are approaching domestic violence prevention and 
assistance in interesting and innovative ways. The bill will provide 
funding for a national study of best practices on the ways states are 
addressing domestic violence. In addition, states will be able to 
continue to provide services to domestic and family violence survivors 
without worrying about federal exemption caps. The bill will allow 
these survivors to receive the services they need when they are making 
the transition out of dangerous situations to safe and successful 
lives.
  Finally, the bill would support relatives who take in underprivileged 
children. A growing number of children, 2.16 million in 2000, are being 
cared for solely by grandparents and other relatives. Although some of 
these children are involved with the child welfare system, many more of 
these children are able to remain outside of the system because their 
relatives are able to care for them.
  Last week a young man named Eustaquito Beltran came to my office to 
talk to me about the importance of supporting foster children. He told 
me that he had lived in more than one hundred homes since he was a 
toddler. The results for children like him are heartbreaking. Fewer 
than half graduate from high school, and many become homeless after 
they turn 18.
  Prior to being abandoned by or taken away from their parents, most of 
these children live in poverty with families devastated by substance 
abuse, mental health disorders, poor education, unemployment, violence, 
lack of parenting skills, and involvement with the criminal justice 
system. A 1990 study

[[Page S7942]]

found that the incidence of emotional, behavioral, and developmental 
problems among children in foster care was three to six times greater 
than the incidence of these problems among children not in care.
  If care by a relative can help children like Eustaquito avoid the 
foster care system, then we should be grateful for the assistance that 
relative is offering. Instead, relatives who care for children with 
support form TANF are often trapped in a Catch-22. If a grandmother 
takes in her grandchild, but needs support herself and receives TANF 
assistance, federal time limits and work requirements apply. It doesn't 
make sense to require this grandmother, who may have worked for years 
and finally reached retirement, to return to work in order to help her 
grandchild stay out of the foster care system.
  My bill would exempt kinship care families from federal time limits 
and work requirements to help ensure ongoing support for these 
children. This will allow relative caregivers to provide the additional 
supervision and care that children who have been abused and neglected 
often need.
  Mr. President, the strength of our nation lies in how we care for our 
most vulnerable. Coming together to support victims of domestic 
violence, children abandoned by their parents, and teen mothers can 
make it clear that welfare reform is about helping all Americans 
succeed, not about punishing the needy.
  The Senate must focus our crucial federal welfare dollars on programs 
and practices that create a bridge to self-sufficiency and productivity 
while keeping families secure and healthy. I am committed to 
strengthening the safety net our families depend on so that parents 
have the skills they need to find work and succeed once they are in the 
workplace. This bill will ensure that children grow up in secure and 
healthy families. It is a critical step in our work to leave no child 
behind.
                                 ______