    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 3, 1996]
    [Pages 1751-1752]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Memorandum on Guidelines to States for Implementing the Family Violence
    Provisions of Welfare Reform Legislation
    October 3, 1996

    Memorandum for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Attorney
    General

    Subject: Guidelines to States for Implementing the Family Violence
    Provisions

        Domestic violence has a devastating impact on families and
    communities. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are subject
    to assault, rape, or murder at the hands of an intimate family member.
    Our children's futures are severely threatened by the fact that they
    live in homes with domestic violence. We know that children who grow up
    with such violence are more likely to become victims or batterers
    themselves. The violence in our homes is self-perpetuating and
    eventually it spills into our schools, our communities, and our
    workplaces.
        Domestic violence can be particularly damaging to women and children
    in low-income families. The profound mental and physical effects of
    domestic violence can often interfere with victims' efforts to pursue
    education or employment--to become self-sufficient and independent.
    Moreover, it is often the case that the abusers themselves fight to keep
    their victims from becoming independent.
        As we reform our Nation's welfare system, we must make sure that
    welfare-to-work programs across the country have the tools, the
    training, and the flexibility necessary to help battered women move
    successfully into the work force and became self-sufficient.
        For these reasons, I strongly encourage States to implement the
    Wellstone/Murray Family Violence provisions of the Personal
    Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996
    (Public Law 104-193, section 402(a)(7)). These provisions invite States
    to increase services for battered women through welfare programs and
    help these women move successfully and permanently into the workplace.
    The Family Violence provisions are critical in responding to the unique
    needs faced by women and families subjected to domestic violence.
        As we move forward on our historical mission to reform the welfare
    system, this Administration is committed to offering States assistance
    in their efforts to implement the Family Violence provisions.
        Accordingly, I direct the Secretary of the Department of Health and
    Human Services and the Attorney General to develop guidance for States
    to assist and facilitate the implementation of the Family Violence
    provisions. In crafting this guidance, the Departments of Health and
    Human Services and Justice should work with States, domestic violence
    experts, victims' services programs, law enforcement, medical
    professionals, and others involved in fighting domestic violence. These
    agencies should recommend

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    standards and procedures that will help make transitional assistance
    programs fully responsive to the needs of battered women.
        The Secretary of Health and Human Services is further directed to
    provide States with technical assistance as they work to implement the
    Family Violence provisions.
        Finally, to more accurately study the scope of the problem, we
    should examine statutory rape, domestic violence, and sexual assault as
    threats to safety and barriers to self-sufficiency. I therefore direct
    the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to
    make it a priority to understand the incidence of statutory rape,
    domestic violence, and sexual assault in the lives of poor families, and
    to recommend the best assessment, referral, and delivery models to
    improve safety and self-sufficiency for poor families who are victims of
    domestic violence.
        I ask the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney
    General to report to me in writing 90 days from the date of this
    memorandum on the specific progress that has been made toward these
    goals.

                                                          William J. Clinton