Political Quotes

“I am taking a moment to expand on the remarks I made toward the end of our debate on Friday concerning the amendment I offered, the Family Support Act of 1995, a measure which simply brought up to a new set of standards the Family Support Act of 1988. We began in 1988 saying all States would have to have 20 percent of their eligible adult welfare recipients in work, job training, or job search by 1995. It was understood that as we got the hang of this, as States learned to handle what was a new idea, welfare should be an interim measure, as people moved to independence and became self-supporting. We agreed to change a program that began as a widows' pension and is no longer such. It was contemplated we would work our way up to higher levels of participation, and indeed in the Family Support Act of 1995 we move to 50 percent by the year 2001, add money to the JOBS program, make improvements to the child support system, and build on a program which we have begun to feel is working. Dramatic improvement does not happen instantly when one passes legislation, not in an area like this, not in a situation where we have so many communities that have been reduced to an extraordinary incidence of dependence. I mentioned on Friday that, in the city of Chicago, 46 percent of children were on welfare at some time in the course of the year 1993; in Detroit, 67 percent; in New York, 39; in Philadelphia, 57; San Diego, 30. These are massive problems.…”