[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 629]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WELFARE REAUTHORIZATION

  (Mrs. MEEK of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, as Congress takes up the 
reauthorization of the welfare law this year, we must fashion a truly 
successful welfare system, one which does not abandon people who need 
help.
  Most families who have worked their way off welfare are far from 
achieving self-sufficiency and are still living in poverty. We must 
return to making poverty reduction an explicit goal of welfare reform.
  Many ex-welfare recipients have been unable to pay rent, buy food or 
afford medical care. In 1999, even in the midst of an economic boom, 
ex-welfare recipients who worked earn an average of nearly $7,200 a 
year, approximately $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of 
three. The success or failure of welfare reform cannot be measured 
solely by whether caseloads decline; lower welfare case leads must 
reflect the integration of former welfare recipients into our economic 
system.
  If, on the other hand, lower caseloads only reflect a benefit cutoff 
in which people disappear from the system without help, an adequate 
safety net, then welfare reform must be viewed as a failure.
  I commend my good friend, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), 
for introducing H.R. 3113.

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