Kendrick Meek: “as Congress takes up the reauthorization of the welfare law this year, we must fashion a truly successful welfare…”

“as Congress takes up the reauthorization of the welfare law this year, we must fashion a truly successful welfare system, one which does not abandon people who need help. Most families who have worked their way off welfare are far from achieving self-sufficiency and are still living in poverty. We must return to making poverty reduction an explicit goal of welfare reform. Many ex-welfare recipients have been unable to pay rent, buy food or afford medical care. In 1999, even in the midst of an economic boom, ex-welfare recipients who worked earn an average of nearly $7,200 a year, approximately $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. The success or failure of welfare reform cannot be measured solely by whether caseloads decline; lower welfare case leads must reflect the integration of former welfare recipients into our economic system. If, on the other hand, lower caseloads only reflect a benefit cutoff in which people disappear from the system without help, an adequate safety net, then welfare reform must be viewed as a failure. I commend my good friend, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), for introducing H.R. 3113.”