Kendrick Meek: “both times I have risen, I have risen in strong opposition to the rule and I will be doing so, I feel, to the conference…”

“both times I have risen, I have risen in strong opposition to the rule and I will be doing so, I feel, to the conference report. Mr. Speaker, I do not think many people in this Congress really understand the effects of welfare. I think that the system should be reformed. I am sure that there are many people who still abuse this system. We have not yet changed to any great extent the enforcement, to be sure, that people who do not deserve welfare are on it and those who are abusing it get punished for being so. Mr. Speaker, I contend that this conference report does not meet the needs of the people they are hoping that it will meet. We are still going to have hungry children, children who are not taken care of by their States. I served as a State legislator. We still did not give matching funds for the funds that the Federal Government gave us. Now that we are cutting the funds, are they going to do any better? My answer is no. The real world will teach everyone in this Congress that you are hurting children. It seems to me that you are doing it deliberately because many of us have said to you and shown you evidence that it is going to do it. OMB has done it. Several agencies with whom you have great credibility have shown the same. It permits the States to experiment with our children in order to save $40 to $60 billion in Federal funds. Why save it when you are losing your main human resources, your children?”