Porter Goss: “I commend my good friend, the gentleman from Glens Falls, NY [Mr. Solomon], the distinguished chairman of the Committee…”

“I commend my good friend, the gentleman from Glens Falls, NY [Mr. Solomon], the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Rules, for his very diligent work in seeking cooperation and receiving it from the minority in crafting this rule. In fact, Mr. Speaker, this is an extremely fair rule, providing the minority with a substitute, as was requested, along with a traditional motion to recommit, in effect giving those opposed to this measure two opportunities to propose changes. I think anybody would agree that is exceedingly fair. Mr. Speaker, welfare reform is one of the most challenging and overdue matters pending before this Congress and this country. The welfare state, for all the social engineering and the trillions, in excess of $5 trillion of taxpayers' dollars over the past 40 years, has failed to bring people out of poverty or to break the cycle of dependency that we all see and are upset about. On the contrary, the policies of Big Brother government have indisputably contributed to the very problems they were originally built to solve. Even our President recognizes the need to fix this failure of big government.”