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Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, I am pleased to rise today with my colleague from Alabama, Senator SESSIONS, to introduce the Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act of 2002.
This legislation is based on President Bush's plan to strengthen welfare reform, and on the bill already passed by the House of Representatives over one month ago.
The 1996 welfare reform law expires this year, and it is important that the Senate work quickly to strengthen one of the most successful reforms we have seen in decades. The results are clear: Welfare reform has been enormously successful. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 1996 to 2000, the number of mothers participating in TANF , Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, decreased by about 50 percent; 2.3 million fewer children live in poverty today than in 1996, Heritage Foundation. The poverty rate for African-American children has fallen to the lowest point in U.S. history. Employment of young single mother has nearly doubled, and employment of single mothers who are high-school dropouts has risen by two-thirds. And this, amidst arguments made in 1996 that this law would seen millions of people into poverty.
While this is good news, and shows the importance or reforms enacted in 1996, we will have work to do. Significant numbers of welfare recipients are still not employed and on their way to self-sufficiency. That is why I am here today. I join with Senator SESSIONS to introduce the President's welfare reform plan.
This legislation maintains the important features of the 1996 welfare reform law. It emphasizes the themes of work, State flexibility, marriage, and child well-being. Our goal for every family on welfare is to lead them to self-sufficiency.
While States have made great improvements in moving recipients to work, much more needs to be done. This legislation requires that each welfare recipient would have an individual plan devised for them that maps out their plan to self-sufficiency. Recognizing that everyone has different barriers in gaining employment, these individual plans would address the specific needs of each individual and provide opportunities for meaningful activity.
Recipients would be required to participate in activities for 40 hours per week, simulating the work week of the typical American. This 40 hours is composed of 24 hours of actual work, and 16 hours of work-related activities, such as job search, training, education , drug treatment, marriage and relationship counseling, and parenting education . And states are required to increase their work participation rates with modest increases each year. By 2007, States must have 70 percent of recipients participating in work.
We have added an important provision in this legislation to ensure that the work requirements stay strong. Due to credits that states can receive under current law, many work participation rates are effectively close to 0 percent. This bill requires that by 2007, states have 55 percent of their caseloads working, irrespective of credits that the State receives for moving recipients to work. This is an important provision that ensures that states are actually focusing on work. With the strengthening of these work requirements, we also provide significant new flexibility for states. States may apply for a new State flex program, allowing them to improve service delivery to recipients across various programs.
TANF is not the only program that benefits low-income persons. Food stamps, workforce investment programs, Federal housing programs, and adult education programs all serve similar
populations, yet program requirements are often different. The differences in the administration of these programs often deters caseworkers and recipients from knowing about all the programs available to them. This state flex program would allow a state to apply to the appropriate Cabinet secretaries for approval. States must continue to serve the same general population, but they could devise a more cohesive approach to delivery of services and program eligibility. Waivers could only be granted to proposals that are likely to improve the quality of the programs involved, and states must have specific objectives in their proposal. Regular reporting to Congress is included to maintain proper oversight. This new flexibility will provide a real opportunity to serve low-income populations seamlessly and without conflicting and cumbersome program requirements.
This bill also provides a modest new investment in supporting healthy marriage. A child born and raised outside of marriage will spend an average of 51 percent of his childhood in poverty. However, a child born and raised by both parents in an intact marriage will spend only 7 percent of his childhood in poverty.
While one of the goals of welfare reform is to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families, this issue has gone largely unaddressed. This legislation authorizes $200 million in federal funding to reverse the trend of out-of-wedlock births. States may use funds for various purposes, including marital preparation programs, high school courses
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Children raised by single parents are 5 times more likely to live in poverty, 2-3 times more likely to show behavioral problems, and twice as likely to commit crimes or go to jail. Marriage and family formation programs will not force anyone into marriage, but will provide people with the tools to improve their relationships, both at home, and in the working world.
Finally, important TANF funding would be maintained. Despite an unprecedented decline in the caseload, this legislation maintains TANF funding at $16.5 billion a year. In addition, the supplemental grants, which are important to my home state of Arkansas, are also reauthorized.
This legislation provides an additional $1 billion in child care funding. Mandatory funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant would increase to almost $3 billion over the next 5 years.
While this bill increases mandatory funding for child care, I am working with my colleagues in the Senate Health, Education , Labor, and Pensions Committee to reauthorize and improve the Child Care and Development Block Grant. That process is moving forward, and I hope that these two both the TANF issues in the Finance Committee, and the child care issues in the HELP Committee, will be merged when they are considered before the full Senate.
I hope that the Finance Committee takes this legislation into consideration as they work to formulate a plan. I believe that the President's plan has strong support, as evidenced by the quick action in the House of Representatives, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in this effort to improve upon the impressive results in welfare reform that we have seen so far. More remains to be done, however, in our quest of working towards independence.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President. I rise today along with my colleague, Senator HUTCHINSON, to introduce legislation to reauthorize the 1996 welfare reform law. Based on the President's welfare improvement initiatives, including promoting independence through work, State innovation and promoting health marriage and family foundation, this bill builds upon the success of the 1996 welfare reforms. Since Congress passed welfare reform in 1996, welfare rolls have fallen dramatically. Poverty has declined across all categories. Child hunger has declined. More single mothers are employed and their income is still increasing. Out-of-wedlock births have begun to level off. And more children are growing up in married households. By tying welfare to work, the 1996 reforms succeeded in making people self-sufficient and independent. Yet there is still more that needs to be done.
Our bill will continue to promote independence through work by gradually increasing the work participation standards and allowing workers to use up to 16 hours a week for activities to prepare them for the workforce including education and training, substance abuse treatment, and job readiness assistance. These 16 hours will enable welfare recipients to not only find employment, but to open up opportunities to become independent and self-sufficient.
States need the resources and the flexibility that will allow them to continue to help families leave welfare for work. This legislation will implement the President's ``state flexibility waivers'' which allow states to integrate anti-poverty programs from different federal departments.
Senator HUTCHINSON and I, as members of the Senate Health, Education , Labor, and Pensions Committee will continue to work with our colleagues to develop meaningful and comprehensive child care legislation to complement the welfare reform bill. I believe that we must work hard to create child care programs that focus on school readiness and an end to the welfare cycle.
Part of this legislation includes $200 million in grants to states for marriage promotion. One of President Bush's top priorities this year has been to remove the financial penalties against marriage within the welfare system and to provide services and supports to couples who choose marriage for themselves. Our bill will assist them in acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to form and sustain healthy, loving and protective marriages. Study after study has shown the unquestionable benefits marriage has on our society.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to passing meaningful welfare reform legislation that continues to improve upon the welfare reforms of 1996 and gives states the resources and flexibility they need to help families become stronger and more self-sufficient. I thank my colleague from Arkansas, Senator HUTCHINSON for his work and dedication to welfare reform, and I thank President Bush for his vision and his dedication to getting this done.
By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself and Mr. FRIST):
S. 2649. A bill to provide assistance to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing foreign countries; to the Committee on Health, Education , Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator FRIST in introducing this important legislation to help in the international battle against the AIDS pandemic. AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death in the world. This disease ends lives, destroy families, undermines economies, and threatens the stability and progress of entire nations.
We in America know the pain and loss that this disease cruelly inflicts. Millions of our fellow citizens, men, women, and children, are inflected with HIV/AIDS, and far too many have lost their lives.
While we still seek a cure to AIDS, we have learned to help those infected by the virus to lead long and productive lives through the miracle of prescription drugs.
But this disease knows no boundaries. It travels across borders to infect innocent people in every continent across the globe.
We have an obligation to continue the fight against this disease at home. But we should also share what we have learned to help those in other countries in this life-and-death battle. And we must do all we can to provide new resources to help those who cannot afford today's therapies.
We must carry the fight against AIDS to every corner of the globe, and the legislation that I am introducing with Senator FRIST today is a step in that direction.
The International AIDS Treatment and Prevention Act provides new legal authority and funding to our Nation's strongest health care agencies to join the global battle against AIDS. It promotes models of community-based care that reach the real people affected by this disease; better access to the research and therapies needed to prevent transmission of this deadly disease; and most importantly, funds research and treatment models to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their infants including the family support services necessary to stem the orphan crisis.
Governments can make the difference in battling this epidemic. When governments in poor countries have been provided resources to fight the spread of AIDS, infection rates have dropped 80 percent. With this legislation, the United States will do its part to support countries to turn the corner of AIDS on their own.
I am pleased that the administration is increasing funding for the fight against the global AIDS epidemic, and together with this legislation, we can truly lead the international community in the fight against the greatest public health threat of our times.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Kennedy today to introduce the International AIDS Treatment and Prevention Act. This legislation is another important bipartisan step in our global battle against AIDS and other infectious diseases. The international crisis of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria threatens the entire world. We have done much here at home through Ryan White and other programs. We must show we can lead the world against these scourges as well. This morning, President Bush again underscored this administration's commitment, and his personal commitment, to reducing the spread of
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When I first came to the Senate eight years ago, HIV/AIDS was a little understood or recognized problem. In that time I have traveled far from the Senate floor. I have been on seven different medical mission trips to Africa, most recently, in January, to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
The trips have helped reveal to me the impact that one single virus--HIV--is having on the destruction of a continent. Not a family. Not a community. Not a State. Not a country. An entire continent.
The statistics of this plague are shocking. Each year, three million people die of AIDS, one every ten seconds. Twice that many, 5.5 million--or two every ten seconds--become infected. That is 15,000 people a day. Even more tragically, 6,000 of those infected each day are between the ages of 15 and 24. Ninety percent of those infected do not know they have the disease. There is no cure. There is no vaccine. And the number of people infected is growing dramatically.
The disease toll is incalculable. Thirteen million children have been orphaned by AIDS. Over the next ten years, the orphan population may well grow to 40 million equivalent to the number of American children living east of the Mississippi River. I had the privilege of visiting with Tabu, a 28-year-old prostitute, who was leaving Arusha to return to her village to die. She stayed an extra day to meet with us. I will never forget her cheerful demeanor and mischievous smile as we met in her small stick-framed mud hut, no more than 12 feet by 12 feet. Her two sisters are also infected; a third sister has already died. Tabu will leave behind an eleven-year-old daughter, Adija.
Not only do HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria produce over 50 percent of the deaths due to infectious diseases each year, they have complex disease patterns that result in facilitating each other's spread. By weakening the immune system, infection with HIV increases susceptibility to both tuberculosis and malaria. Furthermore, the increasing number of multi-resistant tuberculosis cases is largely attributed to resistance developed in HIV-infected patients. Finally, in treating severe anemia that commonly accompanies illness due to malaria, untested blood transfusions create a method of HIV/AIDS spread.
At home in Tennessee, or even here in Washington, DC, Uganda and Tanzania feel very far away. But the plague of HIV/AIDS and the chaos, despair and civil disorder it perpetrates only undermines the chance for democracy to flourish. Without civil institutions, there is disorder.
Last year in South Africa, one of every 200 teachers died of AIDS. In a recent study in Kenya, 75 percent of deaths on the police force were AIDS-related. HIV-related deaths among hospital workers in Zambia have increased 13 fold in the last decade. These losses devastate local economies. Botswana's economy will shrink by 30 percent in ten years; Kenya's by 15 percent. Family incomes in the Ivory Coast have declined by 50 percent, while health care expenditures have risen by 4000 percent.
Africa has lost an entire generation. In Nairobi, Kenya, I visited the Kibera slum. With a population of over 750,000, one out of five of those who live in Kibera are HIV/AIDS positive. As I walked the crowded pathways sandwiched between hundreds of thousands of aluminum shanties, I was amazed that there were only children or elderly individuals. The disease had wiped out the parents the most productive segment of the population teachers, military personnel, hospital workers, and law enforcement officers. African orphans therefore lack teachers, role models and leaders. This leaves them vulnerable to criminal organizations, revolutionary militias, and terrorists. Terrorism and crime could become a way of life for a young generation.
Africa is not alone. India, with over 4 million cases of HIV/AIDS, is on the edge of explosive growth. China is estimated to have as many as 10 million infected persons. The Caribbean suffers from one of the highest rates of infection of any region in the world. Eastern Europe and Russia report the fastest growth of AIDS cases. These nations are the next generation in the AIDS crisis they present an opportunity for intervention and success if we act quickly and decisively.
Due to the social, economic and political destructive effects of this disease, I'm devoting much of my time to this issue, and in particular, to the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Just as our great nation is the leader in the war on terrorism, we must continue to lead the fight against AIDS in order to build a better, safer world.
There is perhaps no greater global issue than the spread of deadly infectious disease. As President Bush said today, the United States must lead the fight in this international crises. We must now provide the leadership to confront the global HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis epidemics. History will record how we respond to the call.
We fight this battle in two ways: by improving primary prevention and expanding access to treatment. Until science produces a vaccine, prevention through behavioral change and awareness is the key. And once again, cultural stigmas must be overcome. Through a combination of comprehensive national plans, donor support and community-based organizations, we can make progress. We know that prevention and treatment go hand and hand, and that the necessary infrastructure must be present in order to delivery care.
I have already introduced legislation with Senator KERRY--the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2002. This act would direct the President to work with foreign governments, the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, and the private sector to establish the Global AIDS and Health Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. This fund would provide grants to governments and non-governmental organizations for implementation of effective and affordable HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis programs. Additionally, this legislation requires a comprehensive American strategy for combating these infectious diseases, enhances programs targeted toward empowering women, links debt relief to implementation of health programs, extends military to military prevention activities and establishes an incentive program for American clinicians to provide their expertise abroad.
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