Jan Meyers: “I support this rule and urge my colleagues to support it. The Personal Responsibility Act is a good start toward…”

“I support this rule and urge my colleagues to support it. The Personal Responsibility Act is a good start toward reforming our welfare system. Because of the block grant, the entitlement nature of the program is ended. We ask able-bodied people between 18 and 50 who receive food stamps to do some work for their benefits. We reform the SSI program to help stop monthly checks from going to prisoners and checks that were going to healthy children. And we finally tell recent immigrants that the promise of America does not automatically include a welfare check. But many issues remain unaddressed, and I believe the most serious is the ever-increasing illegitimacy rate. In 1994, one-third of our children were born into homes where no father ever lived. And by the year 2000, 80 percent of minority children and 40 percent of all children in this country will be born out of wedlock. Unfortunately, the conference report does nothing to require that fathers be identified.”