Byron Dorgan: “Mr. President, the reason this is necessary is the Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the cost…”

“Mr. President, the reason this is necessary is the Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the cost to the States of meeting the work requirement in this bill will exceed the funds provided in the Dole plan by about $17 billion over 7 years. So the States will be forced to either raise some taxes or cut some spending in other areas by $17 billion in order to comply with the requirements in the Dole bill. Alternatively, they could simply abandon the work requirement. They could abandon the effort to meet these work requirement goals and they could instead pay a modest penalty--modest as compared to the $17 billion. The penalty would be about $6 billion.”