Mike Levin: “Today, the Senate will reach a milestone in the long and sometimes twisting journey of welfare reform legislation. The…”

“Today, the Senate will reach a milestone in the long and sometimes twisting journey of welfare reform legislation. The Senate will pass this bill, as the House of Representatives did yesterday. The President has told the Nation that he will sign it, and soon it will become law. I will vote in favor of this bill because it is a step toward ending the present system which simply does not work and replacing it with a system which requires and rewards work. I wish, however, that we had before us a reform bill which I could wholeheartedly, without reservation, endorse and support. I would greatly prefer a bill, for example, like the work first legislation which contained a Federal safety net for children and which I cosponsored with Senator Daschle and many of my colleagues or even like the bipartisan Biden-Specter approach which I voted for in the Senate. The bill before us is an improvement over the legislation which I opposed last year and which the President vetoed because, among other things, it provides more support for child care, retains needed child protection programs and services, includes my amendment strengthening the work requirement, does not block grant food stamp assistance, requires a greater maintenance of effort from the States, and doubles the contingency fund to help States in times of economic downturn. However, it contains a number of serious flaws. That is why it is a milestone and not a final destination. It will need repairs.”