Major Owens

On the occasion of the historic vote to launch an impeachment inquiry I have joined with the overwhelming majority of Democrats to vote for an alternative compromise

I ask my colleagues to pardon my ignorance, but I am not a lawyer and I have not been impressed with the legal gymnastics of the Committee on the Judiciary hearings

This amendment is not silent on the question. This amendment rules out the use of force, and H.R. 4114 does not deal with the use of force at all.

Is H.R. 4114 neutral on the question of military intervention? Does it discuss it at all?

I would like to clarify a position. The gentleman is the sponsor of a bill, H.R. 4114, on which I am a cosponsor and all the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are cosponsors, and there are in all more than a hundred cosponsors, and…

It is more reasonable to take the 5-year-old and 6-year-old as the cutoff point where the child is older and able to go to Head Start or school, kindergarten or regular school, and they are just going to overlook all of the evidence that…

So we have to have more support services for them when they get to regular school, and then eventually they are going to have a larger percentage of the juvenile delinquents, and later on the criminals. We are just going to throw away all…

Is there any scientific evidence that supports their reasoning there in terms of the taking away out of the home, or they are saying they are going to cut them off in 2 years? It means a woman with a new baby, the baby is 2 years old…

What about the habits of the mothers who are on welfare and the child is 6 years old? They are saying that they cannot be saved?

You have said that the plans that are being developed by the White House indicate they want to focus in on the youngest welfare recipients, which means that the ones coming in now, the youngest ones, would have the youngest children.

You have not even mentioned health care, the fact that after they get off AFDC, they cannot get Medicaid, they do not have health care.

More intelligent, more well-directed job training and education program and a program fully paid for by the Federal Government, because States and local governments have balked at supplying any percentage of the funds needed for the…

So we would go down from 5 million families to something like 3 million families.

You estimate, according to your statistics, maybe as many as two-fifths of the people on welfare could get off with just some enhancement of the job training and education program.

For a long time in New York State we had a debate on whether or not welfare would provide, help keep women on welfare who wanted to go to college. They have to get a special waiver to go for 2 years, and that was permitted for large…

So 42 percent of the people do not need to be told, 2 years and you're off, because in less than 2 years they are off.

If they have a high school diploma already, then we can conclude that they probably do not need a very costly job training program. They need training for jobs, but they have a lot to offer when they come to the training for the jobs, and…

A program to train people for 1 year. In 1 year of training one can get certain categories of jobs: practical nurse, child care aide, and one or two others. So just to have a 1-year training, one gets trained for a job that is going to…

Would the gentlewoman also agree that collecting from fathers who are not in the home, who do not have jobs, is almost an impossibility and so a jobs program is an absolute necessity for a large percentage of the fathers involved here?

I rise in favor of welfare reform. I am in favor of any form of reform of a Federal function or government function. Everything can be improved. But I hope the reform will go forward without hysteria, and without seeking to wreak revenge…

I congratulate my distinguished colleague from California for that fine piece of legislation, and I would like to become a cosponsor. I think it certainly ought to be a component of any welfare reform legislation. Mr. Speaker, I have a…

Each local educational agency shall reserve not less than 1 percent of its allocation under this part for the purposes of carrying out this section, including family literacy and parenting skills. There is no requirement for proving…

Would you go with me, and, if I pledge to go with you to the Department of Education and, in addition to the language in the report which makes it clear this is no new reporting requirement, to make sure that they don't come up with…

Will the gentleman accept the amendment if I work with him to limit? Say we are going to go together to the Department of Education and work with them to make sure the regulation limits any reporting requirements to two or three sentences…