WALLY HERGER: “4 months ago the House passed a 5-year welfare reform extension bill. Yet now, just 11 days remain before the successful…”

“4 months ago the House passed a 5-year welfare reform extension bill. Yet now, just 11 days remain before the successful Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program expires. The 1996 law lifted nearly 3 million children from poverty. It resulted in a dramatic increase in the employment and earnings of single mothers, all while reducing welfare dependence by 9 million people. Still, we know we have more work to do in the next phase of welfare reform. Some in Washington seem to be willing to allow the program to run out at the end of this month. They seem to believe a simple extension would suffice, but a simple extension of this program will not help the nearly 60 percent of the adults on welfare who are doing nothing now to engage in activities that will lead them on the road and the path from poverty to self-reliance. A simple extension will not provide $2 billion in increased child care funds to support more working low-income families, and a simple extension will not invest more in families by promoting healthy marriages and preventing the millions of children born out of wedlock from growing up without the benefit of their father. We must act now. So join us in supporting H. Res. 525. It is my sincere hope that we will soon get to a conference with the other body so we can work out our differences on this important legislation. More than 2 million low-income families in America are depending on us for help.”