John B. Breaux: “Is that the Senator's premise of what he is trying to accomplish? Let me read a very short description of what a voucher…”

“Is that the Senator's premise of what he is trying to accomplish? Let me read a very short description of what a voucher program does, and tell me why he disagrees with it. It says a voucher provided to a family under this law shall be based on the State's assessment of the need of the child of the family. That shall be determined from the day of the subsistence need of the child; that it is effectively designed to appropriately pay third parties for shelter, goods, and services received by the child; and, third, finally, it is payable directly to such third parties. If a State decides to have a 24-month termination of a parent because they do not follow the rules, what is wrong with this provision taking care of the needs of the child designed by the State to take care of the needs determined by the State to be payable to a third party on the subsistence needs of the child? If they talk about food stamps, it would not qualify under this. We are talking about assistance needs of the child. Food stamps would include food.”