Jack Kingston: “Mr. Chairman, consider the case of Sue and Dan Williams. I am going to change the name a little bit, but they are real…”

“Mr. Chairman, consider the case of Sue and Dan Williams. I am going to change the name a little bit, but they are real people. Sue was on welfare for several years, trapped in the hopeless welfare cycle and then during welfare, because of welfare reform, decided, okay, it is time to get a job. And she was a little scared about it, but she got a job and needed to have some child care. And that is a mother's primary concern, which it should be. And we all admire mothers for that. That is why in the welfare reform bill there was $20 billion in child care for people like Sue and Dan Williams for their children, $20 billion. In addition to that, when the senior citizens and their family have to live with them, there is dependent care, a tax credit for families like that. There is social services, block grants. There is child care to States and entitlement programs to the tune of $8.8 billion in Federal support for the child care programs through the year 2001. These programs are strongly, strongly supported by Congress on both sides of the aisle, programs such as Head Start, Even Start, the Campus-Based Child Care, IDEA Services for Preschoolers and Infant Programs for after school. Mr. Chairman, I have been to some of these after-school programs. These children are learning things. They are learning life skills. They are learning to work with each other.”