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Also, I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that there was not the solid commitment to a work requirement prior to the 1996 Act. And so I am so very, very proud that at least three of us and many more have been able to come from the State level where we made a gallant attempt to come here to Washington, D.C. Of course I got here with my friend from Florida who spoke earlier with the class of 1994.
We worked real hard for 2 years. I am just so pleased to talk about the progress that we have had. One of our most prominent colleagues from that class is the chairman of the Republican Conference, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts). He has made the statement ever since we arrived in town that we need to measure welfare reform successes differently. We do not need to measure the success of welfare reform by how many people we can get onto the program, how many people we can get onto the rolls.
Quite to the contrary, Mr. Speaker. We need to measure the success by how many people we have been able to move off the welfare rolls into meaningful employment. Indeed, to move them from the welfare rolls to the tax rolls.
I spoke in my 1-minute address earlier this morning about some statistics that I am very, very pleased about concerning the 1996 Act. There has been a 56 percent drop in welfare caseloads nationwide. Just think about that, Mr. Speaker. Over half of the caseloads, gone, a tremendous measure of success. The lowest levels of welfare rolls since 1965. Two million children, children, rescued from poverty whose moms and daddies are now enjoying the benefits of a paycheck and the good life that we seek here in the United States of America. And, of course, the lowest child poverty levels in many, many years.
So I am pleased at the statistics that we can cite, and those statistics are real and they are meaningful. But I am also so pleased that my colleagues tonight have done, as the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) stated, reduce it to human terms and tell individual facts about individual American citizens who have benefited from this excellent piece of legislation. And so when I heard that a number of my colleagues were going to present success stories, naturally, Mr. Speaker, I went back to my local welfare office to ask how the TANF program, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program is doing back on the local level where I was able to work with them as a State legislator and certainly now continue to be interested.
And so I was pleased, also, to receive story after story and example after example of ways in which this legislation has benefited individuals on the human level. Some of these recipients did not mind if I used their names, but I thought I would make up a pseudonym for them just for their own privacy. One young woman, I will call her Sara, became a single mom while attending one of our community colleges in northeast Mississippi. Knowing that she needed to complete her education in order to provide for her daughter, Sara enrolled in the TANF program and received help with expenses involving the raising of a child while going to school full-time.
[Time: 19:00]
She went to school full-time while working full-time for the community college in the work-study program. After completing community college, Sarah commuted to one of our fine 4-year universities in north Mississippi where she continued her work-study. The TANF program enabled her to focus on the future by paying for transportation costs to and from school and for her daughter's day care expenses.
Now, listen to this, Mr. Speaker. Sarah received her degree, a master's in instructional technology in the year 2000. With this post-graduate degree, this former welfare recipient was able to find a job quickly and become self-sufficient, and I can now report with pleasure that she is the technology coordinator for one of our very fine local school districts in the public school system in northeast Mississippi.
We can all go on and on with these excellent examples of the way this program has worked.
I will simply mention Sandra, the mother of a child with spina bifida, who was able to go on the TANF program and is now a clerk at an equipment store in her local hometown.
I will mention Betty Ann, the mother of four, who for a time had to go on the TANF program, but now is working full-time at the Old Miss law school.
Then there is Jane, who was forced to leave her husband of 11 years because of some domestic abuse allegations, but has now, after being on the TANF program, been able to get back onto her feet, move out of public housing and into her own home.
Then finally there is Marie, the mother of two young sons, a welfare recipient who was able to go back to school and is now a registered nurse. Success story after success story, whether you take it at the individual level or the overall statistical level.
I simply would add this, and then I will yield back to the gentleman from South Carolina with my appreciation for his good leadership on this matter.
More work does need to be done, and it gets harder and harder. If this had been an easy matter, we would have been able to resolve it in the 30 years when we were pretty much going down hill in the welfare area. We need further encouragement of work. We have learned in the past 6 years of welfare reform experience that making work pay is an integral part of actually moving people into a meaningful life. So we need to further encourage work when we are considering the reauthorization of this legislation.
We indeed need to expand State flexibility more so than we have already done. I have already mentioned the importance of having that and giving our State legislators, who, after all, are closer to the people, the opportunity to fit their local needs into an overall Federal program, and then to promote marriage.
I think the statistics more and more become overwhelming that a stable marriage, to the extent that the Federal Government can encourage stable, voluntary, safe marriages, that marriage is the best antidote for welfare problems.
So, I just would say, Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to talk about success, to talk about our determination in this House of Representatives to make the system even better, and once again to thank my very capable new colleague from South Carolina for his hard work in this regard.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much, and thank you for your thoughtful service for the people of Mississippi and all of America.
Mr. Speaker, as we discuss the success stories of welfare reform, as the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker) pointed out, you can also look at the facts that confirm the success.
Most important to me, I have got four children, would be to point out that child hunger has been reduced nearly half since 1996. The 4.4 million children who could have been in hunger and were in 1996, that has been reduced to 2.6 million in 1999. That is just an extraordinary achievement for the children and the young people of the United States.
Additionally, I would like to bring to your attention what the gentleman from Mississippi has already referred to, that with the implementation of welfare reform there has been a reduction of nearly half of the number of persons who are on welfare. Beginning in 1996, there were 4.4 million families that were in the welfare system. Currently, that has been reduced, due to the work of the professional social workers of our country, to 2.1 million families.
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The number of individuals receiving cash assistance has decreased by 56 percent. The number of families, as I indicated, has decreased and dropped from 4.4 million in 1996 to 2.1 million in 2001.
Welfare rolls have fallen 9 million, from 14 million recipients in 1994 to just 5 million recipients today in
the United States.
Welfare caseloads have not been this low since 1968. Child poverty rates are at their lowest level since 1978. African American child poverty rates in poverty among children and female heads of families are at their lowest level in history.
Another fact: at 11.3 percent, the overall poverty rate in 2000 was the lowest since 1974. A fact that we can all appreciate, because of what this means again for children, the rate of births to unwed mothers has leveled off; 2.3 million children have been lifted out of poverty.
Another fact: child support enforcement, making parents pay for child care, is up by more than 210 percent.
Another fact: the number of children living in single parent homes has declined, while the number of children living in married-couple families has increased, especially among minority families.
Another fact: since 1996, nearly 3 million children have been lifted out of poverty.
Finally, another fact: before 1996, recipients stayed on welfare for an average of 13 years and few worked; but that is changing, because people are getting jobs. They are having opportunity. They are leading fulfilling lives.
I over the last couple of weeks have continued a practice that I have done in my prior service in the State Senate of visiting the Department of Social Service offices; and in the past several weeks, I have visited Allendale County in South Carolina. The director is Ms. Lee Harley-Fitts. I met with Mr. Fred Washington of Beaufort County, the Director. I went by and met with Bernie Zurenda of the Hampton County Department of Social Services. I met with Mr. Bill Walker of the Lexington County Department of Social Services. And I was very pleased to meet with Ms. Richelynn Douglas of Richland County, which is the capital of South Carolina.
In each case I met with the social workers, and I delivered to them letters of appreciation for what they had done to create the extraordinary and historic social development of the change in welfare in the United States. It is these people who are frontline, and I had a wonderful time going by and visiting with them.
Additionally, by telephone I worked with our State director, and this is bipartisan. She is, of course, a member of the cabinet of our Governor, Ms. Libla Patterson. It just is heartwarming to see these people on the front line working so hard and so enthusiastically at the office in Lexington.
I will never forget that the intake persons who worked there are called cheerleaders; and in fact, that is what they do. When people come in, they cheer the people up. They tell the people who are applying for TANF that they can achieve, that they can have jobs created.
Another office had pictures on the wall of success stories right there in the office. As the people would come in, of course, they would be down and out, discouraged; but they could look around and see pictures of people who had succeeded.
I, too, as my colleagues, have run into specific situations; and in the interest of protecting privacy, I would like to read statements from persons who have truly benefited from the reforms of welfare in the United States that we need to continue, as the President has proposed.
Robin, who currently now works at the Sunshine House Daycare Center, says that ``DSS builds your ammunition to get a job. The classes made me feel better about myself. They inspired me to get a job. Now I feel on top of the world.''
We have, as was indicated by the gentleman from Mississippi, situations where people have gone back to college. We have Melissa, who is currently at Benedict College in South Carolina. It is one of the largest Historically Black Colleges in the United States with 2,900 students. I was there last week with President David Swinton; and I was happy to be there with my special assistant, Earl Brown, who is a very proud graduate of Benedict College.
Melissa says, ``I used to think badly about DSS, but DSS has helped me with bus tickets, a check, class, helped me when I thought I couldn't make it through. They even helped me move, with Christmas presents. DSS made me do things myself. I have a job now and I can go higher. I want to apply for a promotion and go back to adult education . I know now that I can make it.''
There was Kimberly. Kimberly currently works with Scientific Games in Columbia, South Carolina. ``I feel 100 percent better since getting a job. I no longer have to struggle. Now I only have to work. I am no longer living day by day and worry if my food runs out. Now I have my own transportation. DSS helped me with financial and moral support. They helped with my resume, even faxed it, and they told me to write thank you notes. I am thankful I have a job.''
Then there was Christy. She currently works for a billing service in Lexington. ``I have accomplished a lot with the help of DSS. I feel independent and self-sufficient. Getting a job has changed my outlook on life. I was in a slump, without transportation. Now I have a car that I bought with my taxes. DSS helped enable me to provide more for my kids with less assistance.''
These success stories are just so heartwarming, and they remind me over and over again of how important it is here in Congress to work for the principles to make the changes that can make it possible for people to have jobs and change welfare in our country.
Currently, there are four principles that the Republicans have adopted and are using. First of all, it is to promote work, to strengthen the path toward independence on the State and Federal level. What that has meant is that we are very supportive of education programs, of training programs. We all understand that we need to provide quality child care, that we need to provide health care for the children for the persons who are on temporary relief. We need to provide for work to be proactive in regard to transportation, and even relocation assistance, if necessary, to move to locations voluntarily where jobs may have better pay and be more prolific.
A good example on transportation in our State is that we were confronted with an extraordinary dilemma when we adopted welfare reform, and that is that persons could not qualify because they had excess assets if they had a vehicle which was worth more than $2,000, so the vehicle they had to own had to be $2,000 or less.
In looking at this, we received information from both sides, Democrats and Republicans, that made it real clear. There was one outstanding feature of a vehicle that is worth $2,000 or less: it does not work. The other feature is it would take an extraordinary amount of money to promote the fixing of the vehicle. So we changed that to where persons could have a car that was worth $10,000.
A second principle is improving child well-being and lift more children out of poverty. We have done that through working for stronger support enforcement for child support. Persons are required now to maintain current child support.
Third, we are promoting healthy marriages and strengthening families. This, of course, was referred to by the gentleman from Mississippi. Even the Washington Post has identified that this is a very legitimate concern in an editorial on April 5 promoting marriage in our country, because we already know that the prior welfare laws were ones that promoted breaking up of families and of marriage. So the penalties of marriage have been done away with.
The fourth point of the Republican principles and initiatives for welfare reform are to foster hope and opportunity, boosting personal incomes and improving the quality of life.
[Time: 19:15]
Of course, to me, that also means that we have tax incentives for persons to hire, persons who were formerly on welfare, but also tax reductions. In fact, tomorrow, I am really looking forward to being here to vote to make
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As I indicated a few minutes ago, one of the key people who has meant so much to me is the former chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the South Carolina House of Representatives, and he is here tonight. At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Brown).
Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. It certainly was a pleasure serving with the gentleman in the State legislature. We were confronted with this same idea back, I guess in the early 1990s, and people said it would not work. People have been caught in this web of successive generations, caught in the web of welfare, and we felt like we wanted to give them an opportunity. I am pleased to have been a part of that and of having the privilege of working with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson). I am certainly so grateful to have the gentleman up here in Washington so that we can renew that same concerted effort to try to make a difference. I think we did back then, and I think this is a good program here.
Mr. Speaker, I rise again in support of welfare reform legislation. As we continue to help people bridge the gap from welfare to work, it is crucial that we not lose sight of the need for further reform. Our welfare system still suffers from decades of mismanagement and unnecessary growth. It is incumbent upon us to further the improvements enacted by Republicans 6 years ago. In shortening the welfare rolls, we strengthen the backbone of working people. By helping hard-working Americans to find jobs, we restore dignity to deserving citizens. The success of our system is measured by the success of working Americans. Six years ago, Republicans took a great first step towards improving welfare. However, we cannot afford to stop short. We must walk the extra mile.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support further welfare reform. The American people must come before petty politics.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Brown). I appreciate the gentleman's hard work, both in our State and now here in Washington to promote welfare reform.
Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman yield?
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. The previous speaker, the gentleman from South Carolina, mentioned bridging the gap, and that is really what the TANF program is all about, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
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