Chuck Grassley: “Now, under this new plan people are working. The most recent numbers show that the 18-percent figure has gone to over 33…”

“Now, under this new plan people are working. The most recent numbers show that the 18-percent figure has gone to over 33 percent of all cash-assisted families in Iowa now having earned income, the highest percentage of any State in the Nation. Now, some have attributed this dramatic increase to a strong economy and low unemployment rate in my State. However, in this control group that we had to have to satisfy the Washington bureaucrats at HHS, only 19 percent of the people in the old program have earned income. That is only 1 percentage point above what it was for a long period of time before reform in Iowa. So it shows that it takes policies and it takes reform, not just a strong economy, to bring about changes of behavior. My State's success demonstrates that giving States freedom and discretion to create their own programs will be best for the constituents we serve. This bill does that. I firmly believe that State leaders are as compassionate and as concerned for those in need as we are here at the Federal level. By passing welfare reform that gives more authority to the States, we are putting the best interests of our constituents first. Not only that, but by enacting good welfare policy we are also saving the taxpayers some of their hard-earned money. In this package, we save $53 billion over the next 6 years. Much of this savings comes from making noncitizens ineligible for most Federal assistance programs.”