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[Page: H6386] GPO's PDF---
There was a bipartisan effort within the Finance Committee, very contrasting with the partisan approach that you took.
So now you are saying it is the Senate's fault when the basic fault was the failure to do this in the right way in the first place right here. It was inexcusable for you and for the chairman not to sit down with Democrats, surely those who had worked on welfare reform, who had helped to build child care and day care into it and see if we could find common ground. So you have no common ground in the first place. The vote was 229-197 here. Inexcusable. What do you expect now?
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
The gentleman's recollection of the process of our subcommittee is, in my mind, completely faulty. Remember, one of the primary goals of the other party's approach, the Democrats' approach on that subcommittee, was to include as a major goal of the new welfare reform bill to reduce poverty and, indeed, we did that. Second, They were very interested in more education and training and we do that.
So it was a very good bill. It got through the House with a bipartisan vote. The Senate has not acted. We need to go to conference to get this bill to the President's desk.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).
Mr. HAYES. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I admire and respect the gentleman from Maryland. I appreciate his point of view, but I have the opposite point of view. We have been working very hard. When welfare reform first came up, there was complete and total resistance on the other side of the aisle. We have gotten together and we have passed a good bill in the House on a bipartisan basis. I would love to have had more votes. That would have been wonderful. But the clear, pure fact remains, article 1, section 7, clause 2 of the Constitution simply requires that the House and the Senate have to pass legislation before it can be signed by the President and become law. The House has done their portion. The remainder is clear. We need compliance with the Constitution. That is what this debate is about. It is very meaningful.
It is very clear that 60-plus pieces of legislation have been passed under article 1, section 7, clause 2 by the House of Representatives. Those pieces of important legislation lie dormant. I thank the gentlewoman for bringing this to the House and I encourage that we support and pass this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, 6 years ago, despite an outcry of criticism, the U.S. Congress passed the most sweeping welfare reform measures ever. Now, 6 years later, no one can argue that this reform has been an overwhelming success. We have worked to end a cycle of dependence and replaced it with a spirit of self-sufficiency. These welfare-to-work success stories are proof positive of what I have always said--a government support check, while helpful, is no substitute for a paycheck.
On May 16 of this year, this House passed comprehensive welfare reform, the President
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Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to respond to the gentlewoman from Connecticut. Current law allows the States to use education and training as part of the core work requirement in welfare. States have used that well and it has worked well. The bill that passed this body takes away that flexibility from the States. That is why the Governors are upset. That is why legislators are upset. That is why administrators are upset. And that is why people are upset. You take away the flexibility of the States on education and training for women trying to get off the welfare system.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I thank the gentleman for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, there are 4 scheduled legislative days remaining until the end of this fiscal year. Four days remaining. There are people watching the proceedings here in the gallery and all around the country who may be thinking that what they are watching is the House of Representatives at work, carrying on the business of the people. No, unfortunately they are wrong. We are sitting here chatting about a resolution to express the sense of the House that Congress should complete action on the welfare bill. We are not talking about completing action on anything right now with 4 scheduled legislative days remaining.
We now have eight, count them, eight appropriations bills that have not been passed, with 4 days remaining. We could be working on that legislation right now. So it is really quite amazing that the Republican leadership would squander its opportunity to make real progress on a legislative agenda, real progress on addressing the problems and concerns of the American people by taking up issues that are completely under their control right now.
The Democrats, given our minority position, have limited ability to control the agenda, so we have a discharge petition right now to take up a piece of real legislation that would reduce the cost of prescription drugs, H.R. 5272. This is a bill that would stop the gaming of the system and would allow real competition so that we could find lower prices for prescription drugs in this country. This is something that people really care about. Let us do something real and stop this chitchat.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would remind the preceding speaker that the Senate has not acted on welfare reform and the Senate has not acted on prescription drugs. The House has reauthorized welfare reform and the House has passed a very strong bill providing prescription drugs to seniors as an entitlement. It is very disturbing that 12 days before this bill expires, before the welfare reform bill that has reduced poverty among children more dramatically than any change in public policy in my lifetime, that it could languish unauthorized. The House has acted. The Senate has not. The fact is there are 12 days and that this Congress cannot complete work on welfare reform alone.
Mr. Speaker, welfare reform has helped women and children in America. It has been a good thing in their lives. We need it. For the preceding speaker to have said that we have cut work education and training is simply wrong. It is true we do not allow 12 months of vocational education, but for the first time we not only allow 4 months of any kind of education, whether it is vocational or not, but then 2 full days for 5 years. So we allow ongoing education which not only can help you prepare yourself for a job but through which then you can develop the skills to advance your career and move up the salary and career ladder. It is the most generous inclusion of education and training and opportunities in welfare reform that we have ever passed.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the majority whip.
Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, it looks like we are prepared to vote on a resolution that lays out exactly why the country needs and expects to see the 5-year reauthorization of welfare reform law finished sooner rather than later.
Remember, we only have 7 days remaining before the historic reforms will expire on September 30. There are two things we ought to bear in mind. First, the main reason welfare reform needs to be reauthorized and, second, what it takes to get the job done. Welfare reform has been good for America. It is replacing welfare checks with paychecks. It is fostering independence. It is boosting personal incomes. And it is truly improving the lives of millions of children.
We have to reauthorize welfare reform because there is more to be done to help millions of struggling families develop dignity and self-respect. We have been working on reauthorization since January. In February we built the HOPE Action Team. We pulled together committee and subcommittee chairs, administration officials and other Members of Congress. We held weekly meetings to drive both the timetable and the policies to ensure timely passage. We met twice a week. We worked late into the night. We stayed at the table to hammer out our differences so that we could put up a good bill here on this floor. It was a lot of work for a lot of people.
At the same time, I urged our Members to learn more about welfare reform by visiting former welfare offices that are now job placement centers. I urged our Members to meet with folks that are involved in the system. Many of us did sit down with both folks who are still on welfare and people who have left welfare for the world of work. We wanted their perspective on the changes that we made 6 years ago and the improvements that still needed to be made. We learned a lot.
Back in April, I visited the Texas Workforce Center in Houston. A man told me that welfare reform had changed his life and the changes he made offered his children a powerful lesson in doing things the right way. He said, ``They saw me getting up with them each morning,'' because it was time to go get a job. ``I could see in their eyes that they were happy about that.'' I think that is what it is all about.
In closing, I would like to remind the Congress that it takes work to pass a good bill. It takes time and effort to bring everyone together. It takes time to get a bill out of committee. And when you are dealing with several committees of jurisdiction, it takes even more work. Securing final passage of the bill is an even tougher assignment. But the House completed its work. We put in the time and we got the job done for the American people. Our work in the House will pay off for the American people, but it will all be for nothing unless and until Congress finishes welfare reauthorization.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, normally as the ranking member of the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over welfare, I would make a recommendation to my colleagues as to how they should vote on legislation affecting welfare and TANF reauthorization. I do not really have a recommendation to my colleagues on this resolution because I do not think it does anything. I really do think we are wasting time today.
I would like to see TANF reauthorization done this year. We should get it done. It is extremely important. The gentlewoman is right. We need to reauthorize the program. But I have a recommendation to the Republican leadership. Use this time to pass the appropriation bills we have not passed yet. We have not even taken up appropriation bills for the first time here. We normally spend a day or two on the important appropriation bills. With 4 legislative days left, you are not going to schedule them, are you? But, instead, you are going to schedule a resolution that does nothing. We should be talking about what we are going to do with seniors on prescription medicines within the Medicare system, not rely upon private insurance which has already left my constituents in Maryland. But, no, instead we have a resolution before us that really does nothing.
I have heard some of my Republican colleagues say that the other body has
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Let me just, if I might, quote from some traditionally Republican sources. A Republican State legislator speaking on behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures talking about H.R. 4737 said, ``What troubles State legislators is not that the House bill focused on work but that it will to force States to establish community work programs at the expense of those who have left or never been on the rolls.''
Business groups have testified before our committee, ``Under these requirements, many States would have to reduce or abandon their current efforts to place welfare recipients in jobs and prepare them for employment in favor of workfare programs that generate `work' hours, however unproductive.''
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I agree that we need to reauthorize TANF in the 107th Congress. The only way that can be done to help our States is if it is done in a bipartisan way.
[Time: 12:45]
Unfortunately, the majority, the Republicans, have refused to include the Democrats in this process. They have refused to really follow the recommendations of our States, the people who manage our welfare system. As a result, we are now faced with a situation where the other body in fact has acted in a responsible, bipartisan way, and still we pretend that we cannot get together. We are going to play hard ball, to the effect that nothing is going to get done. Well, I regret that, because a lot is at stake, the people in this Nation who depend upon these programs to take care of their children, to prepare themselves for work.
Yes, we should be moving people out of poverty in this Nation; we should be building upon the successes. I supported welfare reform 5 years ago. I support reauthorization of welfare this year. It is an important program, and we need to get it done.
I urge my colleagues to vote any way that they want to on this resolution, because I do not think it will do anything. It does express some sentiments that are important, and I think some of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle may feel that way. But I know I am expressing the majority sentiment when I wish this time would have been used to bring forward the appropriations bills so we could have our debate on issues we have not acted upon in this body.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). Before recognizing the gentlewoman from Connecticut, there has been some discussion at the dais about potentially the gentlewoman using her time at the conclusion of the Committee on Education and Workforce time. The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) still had 30 seconds remaining at this time.
Is the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) inclined to close out her portion of the debate now or reserve it to the conclusion of the Committee on Education and Workforce debate?
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield my remaining 30 seconds to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) to control.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield my remaining 30 seconds to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney), who is managing the time for the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would note that terms like ``bipartisan'' and ``responsible'' are just as much characterizations as ``irresponsible'' and ``partisan,'' and are inappropriate references to the Senate.
It is now in order during the course of the resolution to consume the time allotted to the Committee on Education and the Workforce. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) will be recognized for 15 1/2 minutes and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney) will be recognized for 15 1/2 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner).
Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, in May, my colleagues and I passed important legislation to reauthorize the 1996 welfare reform law, one of the most successful social policies ever enacted by Congress. It has transformed the lives of millions of families and helped them achieve self-sufficiency. The 1996 welfare law has done its job, and now it is Congress' job and unique opportunity to improve upon that 1996 act.
The key reason why many former welfare recipients are leading independent lives today is clear: we require individuals to work for their benefits. Under the old system, welfare families could expect a lifetime of cash assistance without engaging in constructive activities of any kind.
When Republicans gained control in 1994 of this Congress, we vowed to change our Nation's welfare system. It took awhile. The debate was spirited. But by 1996, after vetoing the bill twice, a reluctant President Clinton finally signed the landmark Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law.
The success of those reforms has been extraordinary. Welfare caseloads have fallen over 50 percent, nearly 3 million children have escaped poverty, and the black child poverty rate is now at its lowest point ever.
Between 1996 and 1999, overall spending on cash assistance in my home State of Ohio declined by $19 million a month, enabling the State to increase funding for job training , child care, literacy and transportation programs that further assist families in moving toward self-sufficiency.
The legislation the Committee on Education and the Workforce committee passed in early May builds on that success. Based on President Bush's reform blueprint and introduced by my friend and colleague, the gentleman from California (Chairman MCKEON), the Working Toward Independence Act strengthens the work requirements in current law, which will ensure that even more welfare families are able to move into productive lives. This measure was incorporated into the comprehensive welfare reform bill that passed the House in May.
The bill increases child care funding by over $2 billion and places an increased emphasis on improving the quality of care for our young children. With welfare caseloads cut in half since the welfare reform law was enacted, States will be able to devote significantly more money to expand access to quality child care.
We know that State and local leaders have been on the front lines of welfare reform. The flexibility in the 1996 law is one of the reasons it has worked so well. That is why this bill would give States and localities even more flexibility. With broadened waiver authority, they will be able to continue the kind of innovation that has proven so successful over the last 5 years.
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