[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.