Lloyd Bentsen: “I rise in opposition of H.R. 4737, the ``Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act,'' the Republican…”

“I rise in opposition of H.R. 4737, the ``Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act,'' the Republican attempt at reforming the current welfare system. Since we enacted welfare reform in 1996, a number of issues have been brought to the forefront of the welfare reform debate including, job training, work requirements, funding, legal immigrant assistance, and poverty reduction, all of which H.R. 4737 fails to adequately address. I believe the true measure of the success of welfare reform is in our ability to reduce poverty and to move recipients off of welfare and into long-term employment. The Cardin Substitute, which I strongly support, builds on the success of the 1996 welfare law by requiring welfare recipients to move toward employment, while providing the resources necessary to escape poverty, to move up the economic ladder. H.R. 4737 places a huge unfunded mandate burden on the states, while at the same time significantly limiting the flexibility of states to develop their own approaches to moving people off welfare.”