Patrick Kennedy: “I rise in support of the Cardin substitute and against the leave-the-millions-of-children-behind act that is currently…”

“I rise in support of the Cardin substitute and against the leave-the-millions-of-children-behind act that is currently before the House of Representatives. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the substitute legislation. We have done a good job with welfare reform in Rhode Island. Our program, one I would have supported implementing nationally, has promoted a steady decrease in our welfare caseload. Today, while other states' caseloads are growing, Rhode Island's continues to drop. Our steady progress can be attributed to the policy decisions we made to invest in families to help them gain the skills to obtain and retain jobs. It also provides the resources for child care which enables people to work. But the biggest problem with this bill is that while increasing work requirements for recipients, it only provides a modest increase for child care, barely enough to keep up with inflation. Let's examine the logic here. Increase work requirements for mothers with children under six years old, yet not provide enough money to pay for care for their children while they're out working. Since 1996, there have been tremendous advances in how we understand early childhood development. We know that the preschool years are critical to children's long term success, because that's where they learn the cognitive and social skills needed to succeed in life.”