Political Quotes

“Let me thank the gentleman for yielding and for his tremendous leadership. I rise in opposition to this TANF reauthorization bill that would deny States the opportunity to help put more unemployed people to work. With 26 million working-age adults in America living below the poverty line, and millions struggling to stay afloat, I'm appalled that the House Republican priority is to bring to the floor a bill that further restricts the TANF program's ability to improve job outcomes and get people to work. Funding for the TANF program has not kept pace with need. As a result, four out of five children living in poverty today are not being reached. Instead of targeting the President's reforms, which would actually increase flexibility for States, mind you, Congress should be focused on creating jobs and ladders of opportunity. Now, I was on the conference committee that Congressman Thompson mentioned. I was in the California legislature, and I was on the conference committee that negotiated California's TANF program. And let me tell you, I voted against it. I voted against my own conference committee's report because, as a former welfare recipient myself, I didn't want to see more welfare recipients being penalized by a work requirement with no real effort and initiative and resources to help primarily women move from welfare to work. This administration's reforms would correct for this, finally. It would create that flexibility that was needed then.…”