Dianne Feinstein: “There is a widespread consensus that welfare must be reformed to reduce long-term dependency and encourage work and…”

“There is a widespread consensus that welfare must be reformed to reduce long-term dependency and encourage work and personal responsibility. But the current bill, underfunded and overly punitive, ignores everything we have learned over the last decade about moving welfare recipients into the job market. More than half of the welfare recipients lack a high school education at a time when labor markets put a premium on education and skills. Two-thirds live in central cities, places from which employers have fled. At their most successful, past efforts to move welfare recipients into jobs, such as the GAIN program in Riverside have reduced welfare roles by only 10 percent and incomes of welfare recipients by a few hundred dollars a month. Yet the welfare bill requires states to move half of all recipients into jobs, even though, according to Congress' own experts, the bill falls $12 billion shy of funding for the work program. Even if one heroically assumes that two-thirds of welfare families would find permanent employment, the bill's five-year lifetime limit on benefits would leave 1 million families--adults and children alike--without any source of income. Mr. President, I am very disappointed that I must oppose the welfare reform bill as presented to this body by the House-Senate conference committee.”