Nancy L. Johnson: “I may not need the whole 3 minutes, but I want very much to talk about this issue of work requirements because, first of…”

“I may not need the whole 3 minutes, but I want very much to talk about this issue of work requirements because, first of all, all the studies show that welfare reform was most successful in the States with the most stringent work requirements. The University of Michigan studied this, certainly no bastion of conservatism. The study by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation also shows that programs that emphasize rapid entry into the workplace leads to more employment and higher earnings. Now what does this bill that the President has proposed and the committee has disposed of and brought to this floor do about work? It does a very simple thing. It raises the number of hours a person must work from 20 to 24. That is 3 full work days, 8, 16, 24, three full work days, but it raises the work requirement to 40 hours. That is 5 days, but the other 16 hours, Tuesday and Thursday for example, could be used to take classes. The States can count that as work. They can count, in fact, under the bill, mental health treatment as work, substance abuse treatment as work, all those things that are necessary for the person to be able to succeed in a full-time job and to move up the career ladder in that job. So what this requires of people on welfare is to think about their whole week and how are they going to use the time in that week to create their own future. Work experience is, without question, a part of that.”