Howard Berman: “I have a lot of differences with the so-called Kasich substitute. I commend the gentleman for putting together a…”

“I have a lot of differences with the so-called Kasich substitute. I commend the gentleman for putting together a comprehensive alternative, but I think it has many different faults. There are two that I think are particularly egregious and I want to speak to those. One, I really wonder whether my friend, the gentleman from Ohio, has thought about his decision to include that portion of the so-called Herger amendment on welfare in his substitute which, for the first time that I am aware of in history, seeks to create a two-tiered system between American citizens and legal American residents of many, many years standing on the question of their eligibility for SSI benefits, for food stamps, for different kinds of Medicaid Programs, for AFDC Programs. Mr. Chairman, I am not talking about a decision that says the welfare system would work better if we cut people off of welfare for several years. I am not talking about requirements of work. I am talking about looking at where a person was born and whether or not they have naturalized, and deciding whether or not a 69-year-old person is going to get SSI benefits. A poor low-income 69-year-old would be ineligible under the Kasich proposal simply because of the fact that he had not naturalized, he had not become a U.S. citizen, even if his spouse was a U.S. citizen, and he had come here legally.”