Bob Kerrey: “under the Dole bill, we are fundamentally changing the covenants of welfare. It seems to me and other supporters of this…”

“under the Dole bill, we are fundamentally changing the covenants of welfare. It seems to me and other supporters of this amendment that we should be fundamentally changing the way we design our formulas. Instead, under the Dole bill, we continue to use a formula that is based upon an older system. Instead, what the Graham-Bumpers amendment does is provides a formula that is based on fairness and guided by three principles: First, that the block grant should be based on need; second, the funding level should respond to changes in the poverty level; and third, the States should not be permanently disadvantaged based upon their policy choices and circumstances made in 1994. Mr. President, the Graham-Bumpers children's fair share proposal meets the test that I have just described by allocating funding based upon the number of poor children in each State, a formula just for changes in the population of children in poverty, so it does not lock States into an outdated funding level. I point out to my colleagues something I suspect they already know, and that is, child poverty has enormous economic costs. It has huge human costs as well. Low-income children are twice as likely to suffer from stunted growth, twice as likely as other children to die from birth defects, and three times more likely to die from all causes combined.”