Political Quotes

“State legislators want welfare reform to succeed. In order to succeed, we need adequate implementation time to craft comprehensive welfare reform that best fits the needs in our individual states. Therefore, we strongly support Senator Bob Graham's amendment to strike the language imposing a cumulative penalty of five percent of the block grant per year on states that fail to meet the mandated work requirements. Imposing harsh and excessive penalties will only make it more difficult for states to succeed. State legislators are committed to welfare reform and have proved it through passage of numerous laws reforming their welfare systems. We have asked the federal government for flexibility to change the current system and hope for legislation to empower the states. Despite our best effort, there may be states who cannot meet the work requirements. To add compounding financial penalties will severely restrict state efforts even further--just at the moment when they could use assistance from their federal partner.”