William Orton: “let me begin with my sincere congratulations to my Republican colleagues. They have come a long way in the last 18…”

“let me begin with my sincere congratulations to my Republican colleagues. They have come a long way in the last 18 months since their original proposal, H.R. 4, which was a harsh and an unworkable bill. I would also like to congratulate my friends, the gentleman from Delaware [Mr. Castle] and the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Tanner], and all the others who worked together with us on the bipartisan compromise legislation. The Castle-Tanner bill is a good reform bill which should be enacted into law. While H.R. 3734 is getting much closer to a viable reform package, it is not quite there yet. I will not again list the problems with the majority bill and explain how Castle-Tanner resolves them. Let me just summarize my concerns in two major categories: the impact of this legislation on States and on America's children. If we are going to fix welfare, then our fix must be adequate. The Republican bill is inadequate, particularly in the area of work requirements. The National Governors Association 2 days ago adopted a resolution on welfare which states in part, we are concerned that the bill restricts State flexibility and will create additional unfunded costs. CBO in the report accompanying the Republican bill stated that in fact the estimate of the unfunded mandate will be at $1.9 billion.”