Political Quotes

“I believe this is an amendment that should get overwhelming support of this body. The amendment addresses a problem that I think has come to light through newspaper articles and other studies that have been done by criminal experts where we found that because of the privacy provisions in the current welfare statutes, police are not able to get addresses of people who are fleeing the criminal justice system, fugitive felons who have warrants out for their arrest or are, in fact, convicted felons who have escaped. You have warrants out for their arrest, convicted felons that police are trying to track down. They go to the welfare agency and say, 'Are they receiving welfare? Is there a current address you might have?' And the welfare agency, under law, is not allowed to tell them whether this person is receiving food stamps or AFDC or whatever the case may be. You might say, how big of a problem is this? Well, in Cleveland they had a sting operation a year or so ago and 33 percent of the people who they caught in this sting operation had welfare cards, either receiving food stamps, AFDC, or SSI. In Philadelphia--I went there earlier this year and talked to the fugitive task force there--they have 50,000 outstanding fugitive warrants, felony warrants in the city of Philadelphia.”