Don Nickles: “with some reluctance, I rise in opposition to the amendment of my friend and colleague, Senator Domenici. First, let me…”

“with some reluctance, I rise in opposition to the amendment of my friend and colleague, Senator Domenici. First, let me make sure everyone is clear in what we have in the Dole amendment. The Dole language does not tie the hands of Governors to spend their own dollars. They can give cash benefits using their own money. If the states want to give additional cash assistance to welfare recipients who have additional children while on welfare, they could do so. In addition, the state can even use Federal dollars to provide vouchers or noncash assistance. So I think maybe there might have been some understanding as to what is actually in the proposal before us. The Dole amendment says that there will be no additional Federal cash benefits given to welfare mothers if they have additional children. In other words, we want to take the financial cash incentive away from welfare mothers for having additional children. Senator Faircloth mentioned, I think, the only real experiment we have had on the family cap is in New Jersey. Let us just look at the New Jersey experiment.…”