Bill Clinton: “The primary purpose of this bill, in many ways, was to end the waiver process and then to have some standards of…”

“The primary purpose of this bill, in many ways, was to end the waiver process and then to have some standards of performance for the States so they had to actually get it in gear. But the worst mistake that could possibly be made would be to supplant what used to be the Federal rules and regulations with just a State bureaucracy, because this plan, this program had been run by the States for years; it hadn't been run by the Federal Government. And the States have basically had control over the benefit amount while the Federal Government has set the rules governing who could qualify and making sure that people got the food stamps and the Medicaid and the other stuff. So what I see as absolutely imperative is that every State is going to have to do what has been done here. You're going to have to devolve the ultimate decisionmaking to community groups that involve employers, the nonprofits, and the people who are going to be the ultimate customers of this system, people who are going to move from welfare to work. And this model, this kind of encounter we're having here, this is going to have to occur in every community in the country if we're going to meet the very ambitious goals of the bill. I think we can do it, but only if we do it in this way. And I would point out, 2 years ago I went to Vermont to talk to the Governors, and I asked every Governor to ask me for a waiver to do what Missouri was doing and what only--at that time, only Oregon and Missouri had asked to do. Now, since then, Wisconsin has asked to do this, before the welfare reform bill, and one other State--I believe Vermont--in a modified way. But every State in the country can now do this, do what you're doing, and therefore involve people like Tom and Bruce. And it's the only way it's going to work. [Participants described how the program addressed the wide-ranging needs of welfare recipients.]”