Joe Cunningham: “Mr. Chairman, 2 weeks ago I was elected to represent the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities with the…”

“Mr. Chairman, 2 weeks ago I was elected to represent the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities with the Republican Governors on welfare reform. The No. 1 issue among the Governors, Republicans and Democrats, was unfunded mandates. They went through--there are 366 welfare programs, and under the programs--AFDC, of course, is covered by Ways and Means, then food stamps by the Committee on Agriculture, and work programs and so on by the Economic and Educational Opportunity Committee. Each one of those organizations has got mandates which go down, and we are trying to block grant those. I understand what the gentlewoman is trying to do. The Governors would have us just give them the money without any accountability or responsibility for what the money is used for. That is why I sympathize, but we do it in a little better direction. We do have to hold them accountable for certain areas. We do have to have accounting for the dollars. But what the problem is, when we give the State unfunded mandates, we blame the States because they are giving unfunded mandates, they have to literally give State mandates because of our mandate. I mean it is a vicious circle. That is what the Governors, Republicans and Democrats, vowed to eliminate because they can be much more efficient in this process.”