Arlen Specter: “the pending amendment is the substance of a bill which the distinguished Senator from Delaware, Senator Biden, and I…”

“the pending amendment is the substance of a bill which the distinguished Senator from Delaware, Senator Biden, and I introduced some time ago, Senate bill 1867. This bill was introduced as a companion bill to H.R. 3266, which was a bipartisan bill introduced by Congressman Castle of Delaware and Congressman Tanner. The purpose of this effort was to try to find a bipartisan way to move to agreement on welfare reform. At that time, in the context of the muddled situation which was then presented, welfare reform was stalled because, after the Senate approved a welfare reform bill by a vote of 87 to 12, and the House passed its own bill, and then the conference report produced legislation which was divided pretty much along party lines, when the conference report came out of the Congress that bill was vetoed by the President. There has been a general consensus in America that welfare reform is necessary with President Clinton's famous statement, "We need to reform welfare as we know it." There has been a very considerable effort in both Houses to have welfare reform. When welfare reform was stalled, Congressman Castle and Congressman Tanner introduced the bipartisan bill in the House, and Senator Biden and I followed suit with a bipartisan bill in the Senate. Thereafter, the Budget Committee reported out a new welfare reform bill, Senate bill 1956. Having started with a bipartisan effort with Senator Biden, I intend to continue that.…”