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   Lyndon Baines Johnson was supposed to have said one time that we have to speak truth to the American people. We have to let them know that there is no gain without some pain. So as a Nation we have to adopt that same principle, and we have to know that if we are going to successfully move people from welfare to work, they must be able to convey to others that they are in a position to do for them what they need to have done.

   Nobody gives a person a job just because they need to work. I mean, there is no such thing as a job in a capitalistic society just because somebody needs to work. People are able to acquire jobs because they can go into the marketplace with a demonstrable skill, and they can say to that marketplace that I can do for you whatever it is that you are willing to pay for, and I can do for you what you need to have done.

   A good example: lots of people go to the barber shop, and some of them will go there and just sit and engage in conversation and talk and have fun. Here the barber is wanting to cut hair because he wants to make money. But if people do not need a haircut, they do not just get in the chair and say cut my hair because you need to make money. No, they get in when they need a haircut or when they need a shave.

   So we have to give people the opportunity to develop the skills that they need to go to school, to get educated, to learn technology, develop computer skills, to be able to go in the marketplace.

   And then we have to be serious about this whole business of the minimum wage. I do not know how you get off welfare and out of poverty with a job that pays $6.25 an hour or $6.50 an hour. You certainly cannot do it in Chicago. I do not believe that you can do it in New York, I do not believe you can do it in Los Angeles, you cannot do it in St. Louis, you cannot do it in Philadelphia, and you cannot do it in Jackson, Mississippi. The real deal is you cannot do it anywhere in this country.

   So we need to seriously, seriously, seriously look at raising the minimum wage so that there can be a greater level of sharing of the great resources of this Nation.

   Yes, people go looking for something. But when they do, I am reminded of the song that Billie Holiday used to sing: ``Them that's got shall get and them that's not shall lose. So the Bible say, and that still is the rule. Mama may have, Papa may have, but God bless the child that's got his own.'' And what we have to provide for the individuals in need of assistance is their own computer skills, their own education, their own carpentry training , their own sheet metal training , their own mechanical training , their own ability to go into the workplace and provide for someone that which is needed.

   They ought to be able to get an associate in arts degree in college, at the very least. We all talk about how education has been the great equalizer, and yet we will restrict how much education and training that we are willing to provide for the individuals on TANF .

   We also need to understand where jobs are and what is going on. Seventy-five percent of all new jobs in this country are being created in what is called suburban America.

[Time: 15:45]

   So many of the people who are unemployed live in inner city or rural or semi-rural communities. If there are no jobs in those locations for them, and we cannot create the jobs for them, then we have to make sure that they can get to where the jobs are, which means that we need strong transportation access. So in the TANF reauthorization, there has to be enough money to get people on welfare, to get the participants from where there are no jobs to where there are some jobs.

   I live in a community where we have lost more than 130,000 well-paying, good manufacturing jobs over the last 30 years. I can go by places and point to them and say there used to be 10,000 people working here, there used to be 10,000 working here. There used to be 2,000 people working here. All of those companies are gone. Many of them have moved not only out of the areas where they were, but they have actually moved out of the country. They have moved to Taiwan, to Mexico, to other places in South and Central America. They have gone where the labor costs are not the same. And yet the ability to explore it continues to exist.

   So when some of the Members of this body talk about trying to make sure that there are labor protections and standards so that people who work earn enough money to live and so that they have decent places in which to work, they are trying to maintain a quality of life to which we have become accustomed, and we are saying that other countries ought to be able to move in this direction as opposed to allowing businesses and corporations and companies to move out in other directions and not only diminish the quality of life for those in our own country, but also the quality of life for others in places where they would go.

   And so welfare reform is more than just a notion. Welfare reform has to provide the necessary support services so that as individuals are trying to make this transition, there are people available to help them.

   What does that really mean? It means every time we develop a self-sufficient person, that person can take care of him or herself and their family and does not have to look to public resources, does not have to go to the public warehouse or public storehouse or do what some people call ``feed from the public trough.''

   I believe that America, my country 'tis of thee, that America is big enough, strong enough, understands enough, recognizes the need enough, that we can provide for all of our citizens, even those who have fallen behind, even those who have maybe gotten off track, even those who are maybe incarcerated and coming back home this year, like the 630,000 people who are slated to be released from prisons and jails but do not necessarily have warm, inviting communities to come back to that will help them readjust, help them to have a solid place to live, the opportunity to get training , develop a skill, get a job, work their way back.

   That is why I introduced in February something called the Public Safety Ex-Offenders Self-Sufficiency Act of 2002, which is not a difficult program to understand. Build 100,000 units of SRO-type housing over a period of 5 years so that as ex-offenders come back home, they will have structured living environments in which to live and receive help. And the good thing about it, it does not ask for any Federal grants because we model the program after the

[Page: H2002]  GPO's PDF

   We think that there are innovative and creative ways of meeting the needs of those who are disadvantaged in our society, and we think that there are innovative and creative ways of helping structure reform of our public welfare system so that it does not recycle people on and off, but so that it develops people into solid, self-sustaining, self-developing citizens who themselves can reach the point where they can take care of themselves.

   Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to engage in this discussion, for the opportunity to express a position and a point of view that we have a great opportunity with TANF reauthorization. We have an opportunity to help demonstrate that America can become the America that it has never been, but yet the America that it can and must be, that we can lift even those boats at the bottom.

   I have been told that a rising tide would lift all boats. If we can lift people out of poverty, get them off welfare, we also reduce the number of individuals in prison. We reduce the number of children who are walking and wandering the streets, we reduce the number of those who have not been able to experience all of the greatness and the goodness of what this United States of America, my country 'tis of thee, has the potential for being, has the potential to become. I believe, Mr. Speaker, that we will do that. It may take a little longer than we hope, but I think we are moving in that direction.

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