    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [March 20, 1995]
    [Pages 374-376]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Letter to Congressional Leaders on Welfare Reform
    March 20, 1995

    Dear Mr. Speaker:
        This week, the historic national debate we have begun on welfare
    reform will move to the floor of the House of Representatives. Welfare
    reform is a top priority for my Administration and for Americans without
    regard to party. I look forward to working with Republicans and
    Democrats in both houses of Congress to enact real reform that promotes
    work and responsibility and makes welfare what it was meant to be: a
    second chance, not a way of life.
        In the last two years, we have put the country on the road to ending
    welfare as we know it. In 1993, when Congress passed our economic plan,
    we cut taxes for 15 million working Americans and rewarded work over
    welfare. We collected a record level of child support in 1993--$9
    billion--and last month I signed an executive order to crack down on
    federal employees who owe child support. In two years, we have granted
    waivers from federal rules to 25 states, so that half the country is now
    carrying out significant welfare reform experiments that promote work
    and responsibility instead of undermining it.
        I have always sought to make welfare reform a bipartisan issue. I
    still believe it can and must be. Unfortunately, the House Republican
    bill in its current form does not appear to offer the kind of real
    welfare reform that Americans in both parties expect. It is too weak on
    moving people from welfare to work, not as tough as it should be on
    deadbeat parents, and too tough on innocent children.
        Last year, I sent Congress the most sweeping welfare reform plan any
    administration has ever presented. It did not pass, but I believe the
    principles and values at its core will be the basis of what ultimately
    does pass:
        * First, the central goal of welfare reform must be moving people
    from welfare to work, where they will earn a paycheck, not a welfare
    check. I believe we should demand and reward work, not punish those who
    go to work. If people need child care or job skills in order to go to
    work, we should help them get it. But

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    within two years, anyone who can work must go to work.
        This is not a partisan issue: Last year, 162 of 175 House
    Republicans co-sponsored a bill, H.R. 3500, that promoted work in much
    the same way as our plan. But the current House Republican bill you will
    consider this week fails to promote work, and would actually make it
    harder for many recipients to make it in the workplace. It cuts child
    care for people trying to leave welfare and for working people trying to
    stay off welfare, removes any real responsibility for states to provide
    job placement and skills, and gives states a perverse incentive to cut
    people off whether or not they have moved into a job. When people just
    get cut off without going to work, that's not welfare reform. I urge you
    to pass a welfare reform bill that ends welfare as we know it by moving
    people from welfare to work.
        * Second, welfare reform must make responsibility a way of life. We
    should demand responsibility from parents who bring children into the
    world, not let them off the hook and expect taxpayers to pick up the tab
    for their neglect. Last year, my Administration proposed the toughest
    child support enforcement measures ever put forward. If we collected all
    the money that deadbeat parents should pay, we could move 800,000 women
    and children off welfare immediately.
        I am grateful to members in both parties for already agreeing to
    include most of the tough child support measures from our welfare reform
    plan. This week, I hope you will go further, and require states to deny
    drivers and professional licenses to parents who refuse to pay child
    support. We have to send a clear signal: No parent in America has a
    right to walk away from the responsibility to raise their children.
        * Third, welfare reform should discourage teen pregnancy and promote
    responsible parenting. We must discourage irresponsible behavior that
    lands people on welfare in the first place, with a national campaign
    against teen pregnancy that lets young people know it is wrong to have a
    child outside marriage. Nobody should get pregnant or father a child who
    isn't prepared to raise the child, love the child, and take
    responsibility for the child's future.
        I know members of Congress in both parties care about this issue.
    But many aspects of the current House plan would do more harm than good.
    Instead of refusing to help teen mothers and their children, we should
    require them to turn their lives around--to live at home with their
    parents, stay in school, and identify the child's father. We should
    demand responsible behavior from people on welfare, but it is wrong to
    make small children pay the price for their parents' mistakes.
        * Finally, welfare reform should give states more flexibility in
    return for more accountability. I believe we must give states far more
    flexibility so they can do the things they want to today without seeking
    waivers. But in its current form, the House Republican bill may impede
    rather than promote reform and flexibility. The proposal leaves states
    vulnerable to economic recession and demographic change, putting working
    families at risk. States will have less money for child care, training,
    and other efforts to move people from welfare to work. And there will
    not be any accountability at the federal level for reducing fraud or
    protecting children. We will not achieve real reform or state
    flexibility if Congress just gives the states more burdens and less
    money, and fails to make work and responsibility the law of the land.
        While the current House plan is weak on work, it is very tough on
    children. Cutting school lunches and getting tough on disabled children
    and children in foster care is not my idea of welfare reform. We all
    have a national interest in promoting the well-being of our children and
    in putting government back in line with our national values.
        I appreciate all the work that you have done on this issue, and I am
    pleased that the country is finally engaging in this important debate.
    In the end, I believe we can work it out together, as long as we
    remember the values this debate is really about. The dignity of work,
    the bond of family, and the virtue of responsibility are not Republican
    values or Democratic values. They are American values--and no child in
    America should ever have to grow up without them.
            Sincerely,

                                                                Bill Clinton

    Note: Identical letters were sent to Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House
    of Representatives, and Richard Gephardt, minority leader of the House
    of Representatives. This letter was released by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on March 21.

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