    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [January 9, 1996]
    [Pages 22-23]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval
    Legislation on the Welfare System
    January 9, 1996

    To the House of Representatives:
        I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 4, the ``Personal
    Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1995.'' In disapproving H.R.
    4, I am nevertheless determined to keep working with the Congress to
    enact real, bipartisan welfare reform. The current welfare system is
    broken and must be replaced, for the sake of the taxpayers who pay for
    it and the people who are trapped by it. But H.R. 4 does too little to
    move people from welfare to work. It is burdened with deep budget cuts
    and structural changes that fall short of real reform. I urge the
    Congress to work with me in good faith to produce a bipartisan welfare
    reform agreement that is tough on work and responsibility, but not tough
    on children and on parents who are responsible and who want to work.
        The Congress and the Administration are engaged in serious
    negotiations toward a balanced budget that is consistent with our
    priorities--one of which is to ``reform welfare,'' as November's
    agreement between Republicans and Democrats made clear. Welfare reform
    must be considered in the context of other critical and related issues
    such as Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Americans know we
    have to reform the broken welfare system, but they also know that
    welfare reform is about moving people from welfare to work, not playing
    budget politics.
        The Administration has and will continue to set forth in detail our
    goals for reform and our objections to this legislation. The
    Administration strongly supported the Senate Democratic and House
    Democratic welfare reform bills, which ensured that States would have
    the resources and incentives to move people from welfare to work and
    that children would be protected. I strongly support time limits, work
    requirements, the toughest possible child support enforcement, and
    requiring minor mothers to live at home as a condition of assistance,
    and I am pleased that these central elements of my approach have been
    addressed in H.R. 4.
        We remain ready at any moment to sit down in good faith with
    Republicans and Democrats in the Congress to work out an acceptable
    welfare reform plan that is motivated by the urgency of reform rather
    than by a budget plan that is contrary to America's values. There is a
    bipartisan consensus around the country on the fundamental elements of
    real welfare reform, and it would be a tragedy for this Congress to
    squander this historic opportunity to achieve it. It is essential for
    the Congress to address shortcomings in the legislation in the following
    areas:
        Work and Child Care: Welfare reform is first and foremost
                about work. H.R. 4 weakens several important work provisions
                that are vital to welfare reform's success. The final
                welfare reform legislation should provide sufficient child
                care to enable recipients to leave welfare for work; reward
                States for placing people in jobs; restore the guarantee of
                health coverage for poor families; require States to
                maintain their

    [[Page 23]]

                stake in moving people from welfare to work; and protect
                States and families in the event of economic downturn and
                population growth. In addition, the Congress should abandon
                efforts included in the budget reconciliation bill that
                would gut the Earned Income Tax Credit, a powerful work
                incentive that is enabling hundreds of thousands of families
                to choose work over welfare.
        Deep Budget Cuts and Damaging Structural Changes: H.R. 4 was
                designed to meet an arbitrary budget target rather than to
                achieve serious reform. The legislation makes damaging
                structural changes and deep budget cuts that would fall
                hardest on children and undermine States' ability to move
                people from welfare to work. We should work together to
                balance the budget and reform welfare, but the Congress
                should not use the words ``welfare reform'' as a cover to
                violate the Nation's values. Making $60 billion in budget
                cuts and massive structural changes in a variety of
                programs, including foster care and adoption assistance,
                help for disabled children, legal immigrants, food stamps,
                and school lunch is not welfare reform. The final welfare
                reform legislation should reduce the magnitude of these
                budget cuts and the sweep of structural changes that have
                little connection to the central goal of work-based reform.
                We must demand responsibility from young mothers and young
                fathers, not penalize children for their parents' mistakes.
        I am deeply committed to working with the Congress to reach
    bipartisan agreement on an acceptable welfare reform bill that addresses
    these and other concerns. We owe it to the people who sent us here not
    to let this opportunity slip away by doing the wrong thing or failing to
    act at all.

                                                          William J. Clinton

    The White House,

    January 9, 1996.