Political Quotes

“It happens that we presented this data in the debate that was a truncated debate in August. The Senator is exactly right in what he has said. But there is more to say. This was the work of Donna Pavetti at the Urban Institute--the Urban Institute was established under the auspices of President Johnson in the 1960's--of ``distribution of total time on welfare.'' The Senator is absolutely right. About 27 percent of welfare recipients are on for less than 1 year. About 40 percent are on for less than 2 years. We do not know as much as we should. We have been very poor about gathering data. We, in the last Congress, enacted a Welfare Indicators Act, which I spent 14 years trying to get passed, that will start giving us an annual report on the subject. So this is data from the Urban Institute. A number of people who go on AFDC are two groups. There is this group that is on for 2 years or less, 40 percent, 41 percent. We know who they are. They are married women whose marriages breakup. They need some time to get their affairs together. And they do. A very refreshing counsel of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., when we were drafting the Family Support Act, was to say, do not bother with these good people. The Senator is absolutely correct--at any given time 76 percent, three-quarters, of the persons on welfare have been there more than 5 years.”