Debbie Dingell: “today we are debating the reauthorization of the welfare program. I believe that we have a responsibility to help…”

“today we are debating the reauthorization of the welfare program. I believe that we have a responsibility to help families transition into the work force and provide essential support to make work pay. The Democratic substitute will do that. Regrettably, the Republican bill will not. I focus these remarks on two provisions within this re-authorization that were considered by the Committee on Energy and Commerce: transitional medical assistance (TMA) and abstinence-only education. TMA is a program that provides health insurance coverage for families leaving welfare to go back to work. It is a program that makes good sense. Individuals moving off welfare often wind up in jobs that do not offer health insurance coverage or find that employer-sponsored coverage is too costly on the family's limited budget. TMA allows these families to keep their health insurance coverage in Medicaid so that getting a job doesn't mean losing health coverage. The Republican bill, however, only extends this program for one year; many of us prefer making this common-sense program permanent, as the Democratic substitute provides. Of added concern, Republicans would cut other parts of the Medicaid program in order to pay for this extension. For some reason, Republicans believe the only way they can afford to help working families is if they cut other parts of safety net programs that truly allow the poor to work. This is illogical and I oppose it.”