Herb Kohl: “we should not need to debate this amendment for very long. It is straightforward. This amendment would exempt the food…”

“we should not need to debate this amendment for very long. It is straightforward. This amendment would exempt the food stamp benefits that go to children, the elderly and disabled from the optional State block grant program set up in the bill. I want to emphasize to my colleagues that the House in its welfare reform bill did not choose to block grant food stamps at all. The argument for this amendment is simple. If it is not broke, do not fix it. Welfare is broke, financially and philosophically, but by ``welfare,'' what we have always meant are the federally driven programs that pay benefits to able-bodied adults who are not working. Most of us and most Americans want to see the welfare programs redesigned to emphasize moving recipients to work rather than paying them to stay home. And many of us believe that such work-based welfare programs can best be managed at the State and local level where officials understand the local economy and the specific needs of those in the community who are without jobs. But Federal nutrition programs that serve the elderly, the disabled and children are not broken. In all the meetings that I have held throughout Wisconsin on welfare reform, no one has complained to me about Federal programs that have provided a hot meal to elderly retirees or a school lunch to children. No one has suggested that we ought to make these populations work for their food stamps.”