[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
[June 3, 2002]
[Pages 927-931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion on Welfare Reform in Little Rock
June 3, 2002

    The President. Mike, thank you very much. 
I'm real fond of your Governor. I've known him for a long time. As he 
said, thankfully I took the hot dog out of my hand before I shook his 
hand. You were probably the guy yelling, ``More pitching,'' though. 
[Laughter]
    But it's great to be here with Mike in a 
State that--whose Governor works hard to find innovative ways to help 
people. And we're going to spend some time today talking about how best 
to help people go from welfare to independence and dignity. That's what 
we're really here to talk about.
    Before I do though, I do want to say that I am working hard to 
secure the country. My vision is for a country that is not only more 
secure but also a country that is better. And so we're going to talk 
about the ``better'' part, how best to help people. I picked--the first 
way to start is to pick a good Cabinet. I've really done that. I'm 
surrounded by great people on not only the foreign policy side, on the 
national security side of my administration, but also on the domestic 
side.
    Tommy Thompson was a Governor, a 
friend of Mike and mine, Governor of 
Wisconsin, and did a terrific job of heralding education reforms and 
welfare reforms in his State. So I figured if a person could do a good 
job of helping people find work in Wisconsin, why not bring him to the 
Federal level? Not only is he successful as a Governor, but he also 
understands that Governors need flexibility and authority in order to 
meet the goals that we all want. And so Tommy is a person who trusts the

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people of Arkansas to figure out the best way to take care of the people 
of Arkansas. And he's doing a great job as the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services. So I appreciate you being here, Tommy.
    I want to thank your two United States Senators for traveling with 
me today, Tim Hutchinson and Blanche 
Lincoln. I appreciate you all coming. 
Congressman Boozman is here as well. I want to thank him for being here. 
The Lieutenant Governor--there's the 
Lieutenant Governor; I'm glad that Governor Rockefeller is here. I want 
to thank the mayor for being here as well--and 
other elected officials. I appreciate you coming to hear this 
discussion, because it's an important discussion for Arkansas.
    I want to thank Mark Evans. There's a lot of 
stories that I've already learned in one brief car ride about Pastor 
Evans. They're all good, by the way. [Laughter] Instead of building a 
house of worship, the first thing he's going to do is build a place to 
help people, a welfare-to-work training center. I thought that was--and 
in the meantime, I guess you'll have your services here.
    Well, that's really important. See, I like to remind people that 
governments can pass out money. What government cannot do is put love in 
people's heart or hope in people's lives. And one of the things I feel 
most passionate about is how to capture this great strength of the 
country and help church and synagogue and mosque interface with people 
in need. The best welfare programs at many places are really found 
inside--inside houses of worship. And that's what's happening here. It's 
interesting, we're having this discussion on how to move people from 
welfare to work in a house of worship, and we're going to hear from 
three brave 
ladies here in a second about how this--this 
church, in this case, is helping--or two of the ladies--helped them find 
dignity in their lives and hope for their families.
    I want to talk a little while before we turn it over to the people 
that matter a heck of a lot more than me and Tommy--for that matter, 
Huckabee--[laughter]--and that is the heroines of welfare reform. But 
first, the law that was passed in 1996 has been a great success. Senator 
Hutchinson, as a matter of fact, was on the 
conference committee that was a part of writing this law. It's been a 
huge success in America.
    It's important for Americans to understand, when they hear the talk 
about welfare reform, that the '96 law has made a significant difference 
in millions of people's lives. As a matter of fact, Tommy's releasing a report today, and he can elaborate on 
that a little later, that details the successes of welfare reform: 5.4 
million people fewer--fewer people in poverty in 2000 than in '96. A lot 
of it had to do with the Nation making a concerted effort to move people 
from welfare to work. And so when we talk about the reauthorization, 
which means we've got to extend it somehow in Congress, it's important 
for the Congress to recognize that this has been an incredibly 
successful piece of social policy.
    Secondly, part of the reason why it's worked so well is because of 
work--that there is a work requirement. In order to make sure that we 
continue with good welfare law and good social policy, we should not 
weaken the work requirement in welfare. We ought to set high standards 
and aim for those standards. Anything that weakens the work requirement 
in a welfare reauthorization bill hurts the people we're trying to help. 
And it's important to remember that.
    One of the interesting things--you'll hear people say, ``Well, there 
needs to be more money.'' Of course, that's always an argument in 
Washington, and I'm aware of that argument. The budget that we submitted 
up there has got $17 billion. It's the same level that has been in place 
in the past. But what's interesting is that the caseload

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has declined by 50 percent. That's part of the success of the '96 law. 
So if you've got the same money with half the number of cases, we 
doubled the amount of money available to all people. And that's 
important for the Congress and the appropriators to understand, that if 
you keep the funding level the same and the caseload is half, you've got 
twice the amount of money to help.
    Thirdly, that it's also important to say that part of the work 
requirement is, you've got to work 40 hours a week. In other words, work 
is work. We can play like it's not work, but that doesn't help people 
we're trying to help. The play-like world is the world that these ladies 
struggled to get out of. They wanted the real world of dignity and work 
and to be able to raise their families. And so when I asked Congress to 
say 40-hour workweek, we mean that.
    Now, I recognize some people need extra help. There needs to be some 
extra education or some extra job training, and so part of the 40-hour 
workweek can go to job training. As a matter of fact, 16 hours of the 
40, if need be, should be set aside for job training or education 
purposes. And that's in the bill I've submitted and passed the House of 
Representatives.
    And finally, it's very important that we give States maximum 
flexibility. The problem with Washington is, oftentimes Washington 
thinks on behalf of people just because some in Washington think that 
the only place where smart people live is in Washington. That's not 
really the case. [Laughter] There's a couple smart ones up there, but 
not all the brains in America are in Washington, DC. Therefore, we ought 
to trust the local folks. We ought to trust the Governors more. As a 
former Governor--and Tommy's a former 
Governor--we understand that the more flexibility in the welfare law or 
the education law, for that matter, the more likely it is we're going to 
achieve important social goals and social objectives.
    And so the bill I've submitted that passed the House is a bill 
that's got adequate funding. It's got the need to--it's got high 
standards, and that's what we want. If you lower the bar and lower the 
standards, you're not going to get the results you want in society. We 
believe that people can achieve.
    And the final ingredient that needs to happen is, is that we need to 
get the Faith-Based Initiative out of the United States Senate, too. 
It's an initiative that recognizes that--that while on the one hand we 
don't want the church being the state, or the state being the church, we 
shouldn't discriminate against programs that come out of faith-based 
institutions, all aimed at helping people help themselves.
    Listen, some of the best drug treatment programs and alcohol 
treatment programs are programs that first help change a person's heart, 
so they can make better choices in their lives. And so I'm--I've come to 
this house to herald the programs, to call upon a good law, for 
starters, out of Congress--out of the Senate, so we can get it to the 
Senate and the House, and get it to my desk, and give these Governors 
time to plan to help people.
    But I also come here because I recognize that some of the greatest 
social programs in the country come out of houses of worship of all 
faiths--of all faiths. And so Pastor Greg, I 
want to thank you for your leadership. I want to thank you for helping 
to live the adage--you want to love a neighbor like you'd like to be 
loved yourself. And I appreciate a man who not only preaches but a man 
who does.
    Thanks for giving us a chance to be here.

[At this point, the discussion began.]

    The President. You did great. Thank you very much. I appreciate you, 
Vivian. Probably would be helpful if some of the 
dads paid their child support, don't you think?
    Participant. Yes.
    The President. Pastor, you've done great. I appreciate it. Thanks.

[[Page 930]]

    Thank you, ladies, for sharing your stories. There's millions of 
stories like yours, single moms who struggle to get ahead. By the way, 
being a single mom is the toughest job in America. It's the toughest 
job.
    And so long as there's pockets of hopelessness, this country must 
act--it must act. Anytime we find somebody who hurts, we've got to love 
them. I tell people, if you want to fight evil, the evil done to 
America, you do some good.
    And the other interesting thing about what you all have done is, 
your example serves to help save somebody else's life. And I want to 
thank you for that and thank you for sharing with us and the country 
your great stories. You did really well, very good job by all three of 
you.
    I want Tommy to say a few words. Tommy 
is in charge of getting the law through the Senate, getting the 
differences between the House and the Senate reconciled and on my desk 
and then making sure it's implemented in the right spirit. But Tommy, do 
you mind saying a couple of things?

[At this point, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. 
Thompson made brief remarks.]

    The President. Pastor, there's a couple of other things in the bill 
that might interest the people here. One of the things that we try to 
promote in the bill is family, and we set aside money for grant programs 
to States to encourage families to stay together. Now I recognize, not 
all families are going to stay together. But the more families we save, 
the more likely it is a child is going to have a good chance of making 
it here in the country.
    And so there's a strong initiative in there to promote families, to 
help people who are about to get married to understand the consequences 
of marriage, and then to help people who are married who know they need 
to save their marriage, help them save that marriage. The family is an 
important part of the future. And that money, as far as I'm concerned, 
should be available for programs that work. We ought to be asking the 
question, what works, and get out of the process-oriented world that we 
sometimes find ourselves in Government. And I know that, Pastor 
Evans, you've got a family initiative in your 
church, and I want to thank you for that.
    The other thing--the other part of the bill that obviously gets a 
lot of heat, but it's one that I think makes a lot of sense, is that we 
promote abstinence as well. We can argue the merits of it--whether or 
not it would be a part of the bill, but I tell you this: If you're 
interested in what works, it works 100 percent of the time. [Laughter]
    So the bill is comprehensive in that sense, and it's all aimed at 
helping people--it's--that and this education reform. Listen, I want 
your kids to go to college, and I want your kids to get the best 
education possible. And we've passed a pretty good bill out of 
Washington. It really does empower the State of Arkansas more than ever 
before. And it says, every child can learn. I mean, it starts with this 
premise, every child--it doesn't matter how your children are raised, 
what the mom does for a living--every child can learn.
    It also sets high standards. And see, I'm the kind of fellow who 
believes in raising that bar. I believe in the best. I don't want 
mediocrity. I want excellence in everything we do. And so I'm confident 
that the bill that is being debated up there now, combined with the 
education bill, it's really going to make America a much more hopeful 
place for every single citizen, not just a few of us, not just a group 
of us, but every citizen. And that's really what we're aiming for.

Note: The discussion began at 1:05 p.m. at The Church at Rock Creek. In 
his remarks, the President referred to Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, 
who introduced the

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President; Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller of Arkansas; Mark Evans, senior 
pastor, and Greg Kirksey, pastor, The Church at Rock Creek; and Mayor 
Jim Dailey of Little Rock. The discussion participants were Spring 
Davidson, Jeanette Cain, and Vivian Webb.