[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21336]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        TANF SUPPLEMENTAL GRANTS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would like to enter into a colloquy at 
this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I thank the Chair.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Chair, and I thank the distinguished 
majority leader.
  Mr. President, I seek recognition to ask the majority leader to 
commit to working with me on an issue that is very important to many 
States, and it is important to the high-growth States that also have 
very tough problems in meeting their welfare needs, States such as 
Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Georgia.
  Many States in the welfare bill were trying to gear up to change 
their welfare programs. As you know, the welfare reform bill was a 5-
year bill, but the temporary assistance for the supplemental grants for 
high-growth States was only authorized for 4 years.
  The Finance Committee yesterday marked up and passed out the 1-year 
extension that would match the welfare bill to help these States.
  The budget resolution that we passed accommodated the cost of this 
added 1-year authorization. I am bringing it up because I wanted to 
offer it as an amendment on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, but it 
was considered legislation. The Finance Committee has acted, and in one 
of those process things, I just wanted to make sure that we did not get 
lost in the shuffle because my State is certainly counting on it, and 
Florida is counting on it.
  It will make a huge budget deficit for many of these States if we do 
not authorize and appropriate this last year of the supplemental 
request for the welfare reform bill.
  My purpose in bringing this up is to say I will not offer my 
amendment on the Labor-HHS bill, but I did want to get the commitment 
from the majority leader that we will work to fix this technical error 
before we go out of session so that the States that have already 
budgeted, thinking this money was coming, will have the benefit of this 
expenditure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I appreciate the concern and the 
cooperation of the Senator from Texas. She has been a very strong 
advocate for her State in this regard. I completely appreciate the 
situation in which she finds herself in this effort.
  TANF supplemental payments need to be extended for 1 more year. There 
shouldn't be any question about that.
  The Graham bill to extend these payments, as she noted, was marked up 
in the Finance Committee today. I understand there is a bipartisan 
commitment to move that bill through the Senate and have it enacted 
into law. I assure her I will do everything I can to accommodate that 
bill and to see that we are successful in getting it done before the 
end of this session of Congress.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I very much appreciate the majority 
leader coming to the floor to give this assurance because as we are 
dividing the money in the last appropriations bills--I know the 
majority leader has some priorities--I want to make sure this is also a 
priority. It affects so many States that have been impacted by the 
large number of needy families because they are higher growth than the 
original welfare formula was able to accommodate.
  I do thank the majority leader. I look forward to working with him in 
every way I can. I am glad he mentioned the Senator from Florida, Mr. 
Graham, who sponsored the bill in the Finance Committee. It is very 
important to our two States that we accomplish this before the end of 
the year. I certainly know, with the majority leader's support, we will 
be able to do that.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Texas again for 
her cooperation and look forward to working with her in the weeks 
ahead.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I am proud to be here with my partner, 
Senator Hutchison and the Senate majority leader to join in this 
important discussion. Just a few hours ago, the Finance Committee 
reported out the TANF Supplemental Grants Act of 2001. This bill is 
critical to the ability of 17 States to help their most vulnerable 
citizens move from welfare to work.
  If this bill is not passed into law, several states will be forced to 
scale back their welfare reform efforts, which have shifted in recent 
years to include support services for low-income working families and 
efforts to address the multiple barriers to employment that face a 
substantial share of the families that remain on welfare. In these 
difficult economic times, States will require all available resources 
to provide cash assistance and work support services to low income 
families who have been displaced from their jobs. Our bill will give 
these States the tools necessary to do just that.
  I thank Senator Hutchison for her leadership on this issue, Senators 
Baucus and Grassley for making a commitment to the passage of this bill 
by reporting it out of committee today, and Senator Daschle for his 
dedication to ensuring the bill's passage into law this year.

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