EXTENSIONS of REMARKS May 6, 1992 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS WELFARE REFORM (JOBS) Program
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10548 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS May 6, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS WELFARE REFORM (JOBS) program. The federal government some hope that progress can be made. I provides funds for the program, which must doubt if any welfare reform can counteract be matched by state funds. Each state de the influence of broken families, disintegrat HON. LEE H. HAMILTON signs its own JOBS program, which must in ing neighborhoods, and major social ills. But OF INDIANA clude educational services, job skills train while some humility is in order, we still have IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ing, and help in finding a job. Participation to try to improve a system that is not work is required, to the extent funding is avail ing and there is some hope we can. Wednesday, May 6, 1992 able, for all unemployed welfare recipients Welfare reform will occupy a prominent Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to with no child under age 3. AFDC teenage place in this year's presidential debate. insert my Washington Report for Wednesday, mothers without a high school diploma must Many will want to champion welfare reform. May 6, 1992, into the CONGRESSIONAL attend school to receive benefits. I am afraid that debate will try to exploit The law also places more responsibility on RECORD: the issue, and the racial cast that goes with noncustodial parents of. AFDC children by it. My hope is that we will have a serious and WELFARE REFORM withholding child support payments from necessary discussion on a difficult issue, and Most Americans dislike the welfare sys their wages. States provide child care to that we will move this intractable problem tem. They think it costs too much and en JOBS participants, and temporarily continue closer to a broadly supported solution. courages prolonged dependence on public as child care and Medicaid benefits to those sistance, single-parent households, and out who leave AFDC for work. of-wedlock births. This widespread dis A recent study of the law found that it is IS THE PEACE DIVIDEND BEING satisfaction with the current system, com too soon to know whether it has been suc SACRIFICED? bined with rising welfare caseloads, is push cessful in moving people off welfare. Some ing reform forward. The encouraging devel parts of the law are not yet in effect, and opment in welfare reform is a gradually many observers recognized when the law was HON. DOUG BEREUTER emerging consensus that able-bodied recipi enacted that we might not be able to assess OF NEBRASKA ents should be expected to contribute to it until the year 2000. The study also found IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES their well-being, either by working or train that the JOBS program is offering better ing for a job; that government has a respon educational and training opportunities to Wednesday, May 6, 1992 sibility to make job training and child care welfare recipients. It concluded that the Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, the ending of available to them; that parents should be ex main problem with the law is recession the cold war and the easing of East-West ten pected to help support their children; and pinched state budgets. Unable to come up with matching funds for the JOBS program, sions had led Americans to assume that de that all funds spent on the poor should fense spending could be substantially re strengthen the family rather than tear it states are only spending about 60 percent of apart. There is less agreement on how best the $1 billion in available federal money, duced. Indeed, Secretary of Defense Richard to achieve these goals. thereby limiting the number of participants. Cheney proposed sharp reductions in outlays, In addition, states are not targeting those and termination of a number of high-priced HOW WELFARE WORKS most reluctant to enter the JOBS program Aid to Families with Dependent Children weapons systems. The termination of these the very people who may need the program major systems was a healthy recognition that (AFDC) is the major cash welfare program most. for families. Established in 1935, it provides defense procurement should be driven by na assistance to needy families in which one THE OUTLOOK FOR REFORM tional security requirements, and not be dic parent is either absent, disabled, deceased, or While state governments are today more tated by the domestic jobs these procure unemployed. actively engaged in the task of welfare re ments provide. form, a variety of proposals has been put States administer AFDC and set eligibility But a recent editorial in the Daily Nebraskan standards and benefit levels. The federal gov forth by both federal and state legislators. These generally take one of two approaches, noted with regret that there is a congressional ernment pays at least 50 percent of each effort to preserve many of the defense pro state's benefits and administrative costs. In though they are not mutually exclusive. The 1992, the federal government spent $12.4 bil first approach moves away from uniform grams that Secretary Cheney has slated for lion-less than 1 percent of total federal benefits towards a system of penalties and termination. The editorial observed that in an spending-for AFDC benefits. States contrib rewards. For example, Wisconsin will soon effort to save jobs, unnecessary defense pro uted $10.8 billion. In 1991, family AFDC bene begin a project that will enable more teen grams continue to be advanced. The Daily Ne fits averaged $384/month. In Indiana, a one age parents to marry and still qualify for braskan stated that: AFDC; limit additional benefit payments for parent family of three persons could receive When cuts first were proposed . earlier a maximum of $288/month. The real value of additional children; allow families to earn more before becoming ineligible for AFDC; in the year, Members of Congress weren't too AFDC benefits has declined more than 20 concerned about the manufacturing plants percent since 1971. and help unemployed noncustodial parents find jobs so that they can pay child support. shutting down. It was painfully apparent After showing little growth for almost two that national defense no longer depended on decades, the nation's welfare rolls are surg Elements of this proposal are under consider ation in several other states, including Cali the technology these weapons could provide. ing. Currently, AFDC benefits go to a record But, apparently, the end of the cold war mat 4.7 million families-a 22 percent increase fornia, and have been enacted in New Jersey. In the second approach, the focus is on ters little in an election year when the jobs over 1990. Everyone agrees that the sagging of Members of Congress are at stake. economy is a main cause of this surge, but moving recipients off the welfare rolls by re there are other causes as well: more house quiring them to find work and preparing Mr. Speaker, I insert into the RECORD an holds headed by women, some expansions of them for it. This is the approach of the Fam April 28, 1992, editorial of the student news eligibility, and an amnesty program for ille ily Support Act, and of congressional propos paper of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, gal immigrants which qualified some of als to double federal funding for JOBS and to pay a portion of the salaries of working wel the Daily Nebraskan, entitled "Up in Smoke: them for welfare. Although 98 percent of Peace Dividend Nothing More Than Pipe AFDC children have two living parents, 88 fare recipients. The experience with this ap proach thus far is that wage income goes up dream." I commend this insightful editorial to percent live with only one, usually the moth my colleagues. er. Most AFDC mothers stay on welfare for a little for those persons enrolled in the pro gram, and that welfare costs go down. [From the Daily Nebraskan, Apr. 28, 1992] at least 8 years. Both approaches want to chip away at RECENT WELFARE REFORMS those aspects of welfare that breed depend UP IN SMOKE-PEACE DIVIDEND NOTHING The most recent federal welfare reform law ency. Nothing in all of these changes sug MORE THAN PIPEDREAM is the Family Support Act of 1988. Its corner gests that welfare will disappear, or that the Hopes that eased superpower tensions stone is a requirement that all states oper costs of the welfare system will sharply di would lead to a budgetary " peace dividend" ate a Job Opportunities and Basic Skills minish in the short term. But they give us from reduced defense department expendi- • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. May 6, 1992 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 10549 tures have turned out to be little more than performances in a number of other categories. sion of an armed man who had barricaded a pipe dream this year. That adds up to a first place finish. himself inside a house. When Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in Success is multiplying for coach Ron His crowning achievement was the inves January proposed a defense cut of just $10 Nagrodski and his talented group, which pre tigation into the death of Doreen Picard. After billion (of a nearly $300 billion budget) for almost 10 years, Detective Sergeant Pen the next fiscal year, members of Congress viously won top honors in 1990 and finished were quick to come up with their own plans second last year. nington had finally solved one of Rhode Is to increase the size of defense department Math is not always listed at the top of favor land's most puzzling murder cases.