Tom Udall: “let me begin by saying that if we are to be successful with moving people from welfare to work, then we must make sure…”

“let me begin by saying that if we are to be successful with moving people from welfare to work, then we must make sure there are adequate resources for transportation, childcare and training. In rural America, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you these services are critical. I have several concerns with the H.R. 4737's strict and unrealistic work requirements. These requirements are a bad idea for any area of the country, but particularly in the areas of rural New Mexico that I represent. With the extreme unemployment in rural areas and in tribal lands, the idea of imposing harsher requirements is not just unrealistic, it is bad social policy. For that reason, I introduced an amendment that would have provided much-needed flexibility to states struggling to cope with extremely poor areas with high unemployment. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership has chosen not to allow Democratic amendments today. As I said before, that is not a democratic process. It does not serve this body well. It does not serve the country well. TANF recipients in rural or tribal areas who wish to move into gainful employment are faced with a tight job market aggravated by the lack of economic development. The last 6 years have shown that rural and Native American TANF recipients were far less likely to leave the TANF roles, and those who left were far more likely to quickly find themselves unemployed or barely scraping by.”