Nancy Kassebaum: “Without the dedicated efforts of our staff, it would not have been possible. I mention Dean Rosen, Susan Hattan of my…”

“Without the dedicated efforts of our staff, it would not have been possible. I mention Dean Rosen, Susan Hattan of my staff, and David Nexon and Lauren Ewers of Senator Kennedy's staff, and many others who have spent countless time and effort. It is an important piece of legislation. I am very proud we have accomplished it in a bipartisan fashion. It could not have been done without them. Senator Kennedy mentioned the minimum wage legislation which we will be voting on as well, in back-to-back votes. I will speak after those votes on something I regard very important to the success of both welfare reform and the minimum wage, and that is job training programs. Without our willingness to be more innovative and skillful in how we handle job training problems, we will not succeed with the type of welfare reform or minimum wage that enables us to have skilled young people and retrained older people entering our job markets. I think that is an important component of the success of those bills. I yield any remaining time, but say again how proud and grateful I am to all who have had a hand in the passage of this legislation.”