Rick Santorum

What I think this provision says is they are eligible for a 5-year exemption under the law, and then they have to become citizens.

Just one of the reasons we had more savings than the ag bill is because we had to meet a specific target in the last year. And to meet that target, we had to cut a little bit more than we needed to in the first few years to meet the…

I want to make two quick responses. No. 1, the Senator from Kentucky is absolutely right, it was in the conference report, but I tell the Senator from Kentucky, it was not in the House bill, it was not in the Senate bill, and I have been…

Yes--going into this system, increasing up to 70 percent over the next 5 years. Within that category, 20 percent are exempted for hardship. That means they can go beyond the 5 years and still receive Federal dollars after 5 years. We are…

I would respond by saying, as the Senator from Connecticut knows, we are talking about originally 25 percent of the AFDC population, able-bodied AFDC population----

The second question is on the vouchers issue, and the Senator from Louisiana, while he responded to a question was not responding to my question. He was responding to the provision in his amendment, not the provision in the amendment…

You say all children will receive day care. I will read from it. ``To help recipients get and keep a job, child care will be made available to all those required to work.'' That sounds like a quasi-entitlement.

The State determines the minimal safety and the Federal Government has no oversight?

That bill came through the Finance Committee. You are on that committee. You saw it when it came through that committee. You had the markup when this came through the committee. You have the markup document before you, No. 1. No. 2, let me…

If they take the option for the block grant, they can design this program, which has to be approved by the Secretary, of course. I am sure there are going to be some limitations on that.

We did in the bill, as we did in the bill that passed 87 to 12 on this floor, allow States the option to take a block grant for food stamps, the option which was again approved by 87 votes on this floor.

I can tell you while there are vouchers for the children, the parents get the vouchers. The parents spend the money for the children.

I think it is important. I am glad the Senator from Wyoming has been our leader on the floor on these issues, has taken the time to get the freshman on the Republican side--the freshmen Members are all Republicans; I guess that would be…

We just voted on whether there should be repeal of Davis-Bacon. Many of us are not for repeal of that. We believe that there needs to be reform of the Davis-Bacon law and that we, in fact, should assume that for the purposes of the budget…

If I can can respond to the Senator from Florida, what it says is that the Secretary shall consult with the States and establish a goal. It does not say what that goal is. It could be 2 percent. It could be 5 percent. It does not say…

A State to which a grant is made under section 403 shall make every effort to achieve the national work participation rate goals. This is not a mandate--shall make every effort to achieve the goal. It does not mandate that they have to…

Aside from the administrative nightmare that would be created for the States to give them a block grant for some people and an entitlement for others and the administrative problem, this costs $1.4 billion over the next 7 years. As we have…

My understanding is the chairman of the Labor Committee, Senator Kassebaum, is still opposed to this amendment even in the modified form. It sets up a demonstration project with $240 million in four States. I know the Senator from Kansas…

I understand there may be such cases that you mention. But I think the broader point is whether, when we have people who have violated their responsibilities to their children, we should now create a separate Government program to train…

I question the rationale behind this. What this amendment says is, if you are a noncustodial parent you are eligible to participate in the job training and employment programs of the State. And you are eligible, if your child is receiving…

I have heard some speeches on the floor of the Senate and this ranks right up there. I do not know how you say--when the leader here is negotiating, in good faith, to in fact add more money into the child care fund--that somehow or another…

Let me say there is always an excuse not to deal with this issue. If we do not adopt this amendment, there will be nothing on illegitimacy in this. We have heard great speeches, what an important problem this is. If we do not reject the…

If we are going to require 80-percent maintenance of effort, how could there conceivably be a situation where New York, for example, where we are going to require New York with their maintenance of effort provision to actually contribute…

Because we would like to see some innovation occur at the State level. We believe if you lock in the Federal contribution and give the States the opportunity to actually save dollars, that is the key. When you say, ``Well, the States can…

My understanding is, under the current proposal, that money is a block grant to the States with the States' discretion to provide those funds.