[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[August 13, 1992]
[Pages 1355-1356]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting Proposed Legislation on 
Welfare Reform
August 13, 1992

Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. President:)
    Enclosed for the consideration of the Congress are four legislative 
proposals to promote work, provide flexibility, and encourage innovation 
in Federal public assistance programs. Enactment of these proposals is a 
necessary step to ending welfare being a way of life and accomplishing 
this task in a way that learns what works in making public assistance 
recipients self-sufficient.
    Much has been accomplished during my Administration to transform 
welfare from a system of assistance to a ladder of opportunity. Much 
more can be accomplished. What we have done and what we have already 
asked you to do were reviewed in a paper my Administration released on 
July 31.
    We must do more if we are to realize the call I made in my State of 
the Union address to you earlier this year to replace the assumptions of 
the welfare state. My objective for welfare reform is this: to create 
conditions that will enable recipients of public assistance to achieve 
self-sufficiency at the earliest possible moment. Achieving this goal 
means a new commitment to work. To realize this commitment, I am 
proposing to remove obstacles and limitations that currently face States 
that want to make a commitment to work the center of what welfare means 
in that State. The ``Welfare Employment and Flexibility Amendments of 
1992'' and the ``Food Stamp Employment and Flexibility Amendments of 
1992,'' forwarded with this letter, remove limits to work.
    In the State of the Union address, I promised help for States that 
wanted to reform their welfare systems. The Federal Government would 
give expeditious consideration of State requests for waivers. Since that 
time, my Administration has approved six demonstration waiver projects 
for five States.
    All six demonstrations involve the Aid to Families with Dependent 
Children (AFDC) program. But our public assistance program is broader 
than AFDC, and many individuals benefit from multiple programs. The 
``Food Stamp Employment and Flexibility Amendments of 1992'' and the 
``Housing

[[Page 1356]]

Assistance Innovation Act of 1992'' create the authority comparable to 
that available for AFDC to test new ideas in the food stamp and public 
housing programs.
    And yet the program of assistance to low-income Americans offered by 
the Federal Government is far more extensive than AFDC, food stamps, and 
public housing. One effort to catalogue them all counted more than 150 
programs. To allow States, localities, and community groups to pursue 
new ways for programs to function and interact, we propose the 
``Community Opportunity Pilot Project Act of 1992.'' This would allow 
five communities, competitively selected, to put into effect new ideas 
about how the streams of resources from the myriad Federal programs that 
reach a single community can be made to serve as an integrated effort to 
create opportunity for the low-income residents of that community they 
are intended to serve.
    We must give new attention to personal responsibility, especially 
that of absent parents. All mothers and fathers have obligations to 
their children. Child support enforcement holds absent parents 
responsible for financial support of their children. Under my 
Administration, the number of identified absent fathers has already 
increased dramatically--from 307,000 in 1988 to 462,000 in 1991--but the 
number is still too low. Thus our ``Welfare Employment and Flexibility 
Amendments of 1992'' proposes to strengthen the requirement that mothers 
receiving assistance identify the fathers of their children.
    Progress has been made in making our welfare system an opportunity 
system, but this progress has been insufficient to the task at hand. 
Prompt enactment of the legislation I forward with this letter will add 
rungs to the ladder of self-sufficiency we offer to recipients of public 
assistance.
    Sincerely,

                                                             George Bush

                    Note: Identical letters were sent to Thomas S. 
                        Foley, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
                        and Dan Quayle, President of the Senate.