Scott Klug: “let me make a fundamental point in all of this, and that is the fact that even though Washington occasionally promises…”

“let me make a fundamental point in all of this, and that is the fact that even though Washington occasionally promises us that they are going to get waivers, they wait. This is an indication that right now there are 28 welfare waivers involving 19 States, 5 of them involving Democratic Governors, where we are waiting for Washington to act. That is why it is necessary to come to the floor today. And the sense that somehow this is a ginned-up Republican operation, the fact is that the President said he was in favor of the Wisconsin plan, and we are trying to expedite the process. In fact, we have some applications pending back to September 20, 1993, and that is the Democratic Governors of Maryland and Florida and Hawaii, who are simply waiting for Washington to act. My colleague from Wisconsin is absolutely right, that we want to get these waivers done and we want to get them done as quickly as possible. If the promise is just turn them over to Labor-HHS and we will get them done, well, fine, we will be back here in 1998 asking where they are.”