Don Nickles: “most of my colleagues are well aware that I have introduced legislation to rescind the portion of the DC welfare waiver…”

“most of my colleagues are well aware that I have introduced legislation to rescind the portion of the DC welfare waiver that was recently enacted by President Clinton, because it went directly in opposition to the welfare bill that was passed overwhelmingly by this body and the House of Representatives and was signed by the President and is now the law of the land. What a lot of people didn't know--I didn't know it--is that when the President signed the welfare reform bill that had 5-year time limits for everybody in America, where no longer could you get cash assistance for the rest of your life--and President Clinton campaigned on 5-year limits, on limitations of cash benefits, and also on work requirements--what I didn't know is that the District of Columbia was granted a waiver, which the President signed a couple of days before, that allowed the District of Columbia to have a 10-year waiver from time limits. So there is a 5-year limit in Michigan, a 5-year limit everywhere else in the country, but not for the District of Columbia, and there are no work requirements for the District of Columbia. Frankly, I find that to be very deceitful and misleading by the administration--to go out and tell everybody, hey, we have ended welfare as we know it--and every time I have heard that line, I applaud, because I know the present welfare system hasn't worked. It has hurt a lot of people who it tried to help.”