Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this is a bad bill at the wrong time. I supported the 1996 welfare reform legislation. I thought it was the right thing to do. In 1996, we gave the States flexibility. This legislation takes it back. In 1996, we gave the States the resources they needed. This bill does not give them the dollars in order to do the job. The legislation before us is remarkably different from the 1996 bill. That is why so many of our Nation's governors have said to us in a letter dated today that we will take a significant step backwards in reforming welfare. This is not the time to replace State flexibility with unfunded mandates. My chairman says this is not an unfunded mandate. The Congressional Budget Office says it will cost $8 to $11 billion extra money for the States to comply with the requirements in this legislation. The Republican bill gives the States $1 billion more and $1 billion on a promise. That is an unfunded mandate. Maybe technically it is not, because you can transfer monies from other accounts. Let me tell you a story of my own State of Maryland. Our States have record deficits. In 50 years they have not been this bad. We see that deficits are between $70 to $85 billion in our States. In Maryland, our governor is recommending a 23 percent reduction in child care because of the deficits. And what do we do? Mandate they spend more money by a prescriptive Federal law. That is not what I voted for in 1996.”