Douglas Alexander: “I simply wanted to congratulate the Senator from Nebraska on his comments. He and I served as Governors, as he said. We…”

“I simply wanted to congratulate the Senator from Nebraska on his comments. He and I served as Governors, as he said. We may not have gotten over that entirely as we look at legislation. We strongly support the revolutionary change in American life the welfare reform bill has brought since 1996. Half of those on the welfare rolls are off. The hardest cases remain. What we are attempting to do with this amendment is to suggest that we want to try, with up to 10 States, to give the Secretary some flexibility in finding the best way to help people get from dependence to independence. If State plans using a combination of work and removal of barriers to work and a variety of other factors can do that according to measurable results, then that will give us some successes now and information we can use when we consider this bill in the future. I congratulate the Senator from Nebraska on his leadership and look forward to working with him on the amendment.”