[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 15 (Monday, April 19, 1999)]
[Pages 626-627]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

April 10, 1999

    Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about our continuing 
efforts to break the cycle of dependency and make responsibility and 
work a way of life for all Americans.
    Work is more than just a weekly paycheck. It is, at heart, our way 
of life. Work lends purpose and dignity to our lives, instills in our 
children the basic values that built our Nation. But for too long, too 
many Americans were trapped in a broken welfare system that exiled 
generation after generation from the mainstream of American life by 
cutting them off from the world of work.
    I took office determined to change that, from giving States the 
flexibility they needed to make welfare a second chance, not a way of 
life, to passing the historic bipartisan welfare reform bill that ended 
welfare as we knew it, to launching the Welfare to Work partnership to 
create private sector jobs for welfare recipients. We have made 
remarkable progress.
    Today I am pleased to announce that since 1993, we cut the welfare 
rolls nearly in half by a record 6\1/2\ million people. Thanks to our 
strong economy and strong leadership in the States and the private 
sector, the number of Americans who are beginning to replace welfare 
checks with paychecks has tripled since 1992. I'm proud to announce that 
we in the National Government are doing our part to help, surpassing the 
goal we set for ourselves by hiring almost 12,000 welfare recipients in 
just 2 years.
    You can see the evidence of our progress in communities across our 
country, in hard-pressed neighborhoods where bus drivers who used to 
pass by empty stations now report their buses are filled with people on 
their way to work. You can see it on inner-city streets where new 
storefront tax preparing businesses are helping people file their income 
tax returns, some for the very first time in their lives. April 15th may 
not be the most favorite day for Americans, but for these people it's a 
cause for celebration.

[[Page 627]]

    Reforming our broken welfare system was the right thing to do. Now 
we must finish the job. Today I am pleased to unveil the final rules 
that will carry out the welfare reform bill I signed into law in 1996. 
This major new regulation does two important things. First, it enforces 
strict State work requirements and holds States accountable for moving 
people from the welfare rolls to the workplace. Second, the new 
regulation makes it easier for States to use their welfare block grant 
to pay for child care, for transportation, for job retention services, 
to help people who have left welfare stay off the rolls and help 
families from going on welfare in the first place.
    This regulation says loud and clear: People ought to get paychecks, 
not welfare checks. But to finish the job on welfare reform, we must 
press on in our efforts to restore responsibility and make work a way of 
life again for all Americans. Now, in this time of great prosperity, 
with our economy booming and our confidence high, we can't afford to 
leave anyone behind.
    One of the biggest obstacles facing all working families is finding 
child care they can afford and trust. I'm pleased that the Senate 
recently approved with bipartisan support significant new funding to 
help low income families pay for child care. I hope Congress takes this 
critical step to give America's working families the support they need 
to thrive. Frankly, I hope they will also pass the rest of my child care 
proposal to give tax credits and other support to working families. That 
will help more people move from welfare to work and stay off welfare.
    Finally, we can't finish the job of welfare reform without doing 
more to help people who have the hardest time moving from welfare to 
work, those who live in the poorest neighborhoods and have the poorest 
job skills. That's why I call on Congress to pass my plan to extend the 
Labor Department's Welfare to Work program and to fully fund my proposal 
to provide transportation grants and housing vouchers that will help 
more Americans leave welfare behind by getting from where they are to 
where the jobs are.
    With these steps, we can make the legacy of welfare dependency a 
memory of the 20th century and build a community of work and 
responsibility in the 21st century.
    Thank for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 12:50 p.m. on April 9 in the 
administrative offices of Memorial Hall in Philadelphia, PA, for 
broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on April 10. The transcript was made available 
by the Office of the Press Secretary on April 9 but was embargoed for 
release until the broadcast.