For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 3, 2002
Remarks by the President at a Conversation on Welfare Reform
The Church at Rock Creek
Little Rock, Arkansas
THE PRESIDENT: Mike, thank you very much. I'm real fond of your
governor. I've known him for a long time. As he said, thankfully I
took the hot dog out of my hand before I shook his hand. You were
probably the guy yelling, "more pitching," though. (Laughter.)
But it's great to be here with Mike, in a state that -- whose
governor works hard to find innovative ways to help people. And we're
going to spend some time today talking about how best to help people go
from welfare to independence and dignity. That's what we're really
here to talk about.
Before I do though, I do want to say that I am working hard to
secure the country. My vision is for a country that is not only more
secure, but also a country that is better. And so we're going to talk
about the better part, how best to help people. I picked -- the
first way to start is to pick a good Cabinet. I've really done that.
I'm surrounded by great people on not only the foreign policy side, on
the national security side of my administration, but also on the
domestic side.
Tommy Thompson was a governor, a friend of Mike and mine, governor
of Wisconsin, and did a terrific job of heralding education reforms and
welfare reforms in his state. So I figured if a person could do a good
job of helping people find work in Wisconsin, why not bring it to the
federal level. Not only is he successful as a governor, but he also
understands that governors need flexibility and authority in order to
meet the goals that we all want.
And so Tommy is a person who trusts the people of Arkansas to
figure out the best way to take care of the people of Arkansas. And
he's doing a great job as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
So I appreciate you being here, Tommy. (Applause.)
I want to thank your two United States Senators for traveling with
me today, Tim Hutchinson and Blanche Lincoln. I appreciate you all
coming. Congressman Boozman is here as well. I want to thank him for
being here. The lieutenant governor -- there's the lieutenant
governor. I'm glad that Governor Rockefeller is here. I want to thank
the mayor for being here as well, and other elected officials. I
appreciate you coming to hear this discussion, because it's an
important discussion for Arkansas.
I want to thank Mark Evans. There's a lot of stories that I've
already learned in one brief car ride about Pastor Evans. They're all
good, by the way. (Laughter.) Instead of building a house of worship,
the first thing he's going to do is build a place to help people, a
welfare-to-work training center. I thought that was -- and in the
meantime, I guess you'll have your services here.
Well, that's really important. See, I like to remind people that
governments can pass out money. What government cannot do is put love
in people's heart or hope in people's lives. (Applause.) And one of
the things I feel most passionate about is how to capture this great
strength of the country, and help church and synagogue and mosque
interface with people in need.
The best welfare programs at many places are really found inside
-- inside houses of worship. And that's what's happening here. It's
interesting, we're having this discussion on how to move people from
welfare to work in a house of worship, and we're going to hear from
three brave ladies here in a second about how this -- this church, in
this case, is helping -- or two of the ladies, helped them find
dignity in their lives and hope for their families.
I want to talk a little while before we turn it over to the people
that matter a heck of a lot more than me and Tommy -- for that
matter, Huckabee. (Laughter.) And that is the heroines of welfare
reform. But first the law that was passed in 1996 has been a great
success. Senator Hutchinson, as a matter of fact, was on the
Conference Committee that was a part of writing this law. It's been a
huge success in America.
It's important for Americans to understand when they hear the talk
about welfare reform, that the '96 law has made a significant
difference in millions of people's lives. As a matter of fact, Tommy's
releasing a report today, and he can elaborate on that a little later,
that details the successes of welfare reform: 5.4 million people
fewer -- fewer people in poverty in 2000 than in '96. A lot of it
had to do with the nation making a concerted effort to move people from
welfare to work.
And so when we talk about the reauthorization, which means we've
got to extend it somehow in Congress. It's important for the Congress
to recognize that this has been an incredibly successful piece of
social policy.
Secondly, part of the reason why it's worked so well is because of
work, that there is a work requirement. In order to make sure that we
continue with good welfare law and good social policy, we should not
weaken the work requirement in welfare. We ought to set high standards
and aim for those standards. Anything that weakens the work
requirement in a welfare reauthorization bill hurts the people we're
trying to help. And it's important to remember that.
One of the interesting things, you'll hear people say, well, there
needs to be more money. Of course, that's always an argument in
Washington. And I'm aware of that argument. The budget that we
submitted up there has got $17 billion. It's the same level that has
been in place in the past.
But what's interesting is that the caseload has declined by 50
percent. That's part of the success of the '96 law. So if you've got
the same money with half the number of cases, we doubled the amount of
money available to all people. And that's important for the Congress
and the appropriators to understand, that if you keep the funding level
the same and the caseload is half, you've got twice the amount of money
to help.
Thirdly, that it's also important to say that part of the work
requirement is, you've got to work 40 hours a week. In other words,
work is work. We can play like it's not work, but that doesn't help
people we're trying to help. The play-like world is the world that
these ladies struggled to get out of. They wanted the real world of
dignity and work, and to be able to raise their families.
And so when I asked Congress to say 40-hour work week, we mean
that. Now, I recognize some people need extra help. There needs to be
some extra education, or some extra job training. And so part of the
40 hour work week can go to job training. As a matter of fact, 16
hours of the 40, if need be, should be set aside for job training or
education purposes. And that's in the bill I've submitted and passed
the House of Representatives.
And finally, it's very important that we give states maximum
flexibility. The problem with Washington is oftentimes Washington
thinks on behalf of people. Just because some in Washington think that
the only place where smart people live is in Washington. That's not
really the case. (Laughter.)
There's a couple smart ones up there, but not all the brains in
America are in Washington, D.C. Therefore, we ought to trust the local
folks. We ought to trust the governors more. As a former governor,
and Tommy's a former governor, we understand that the more flexibility
in the welfare law, or the education law for that matter, the more
likely it is we're going to achieve important social goals and social
objectives.
And so the bill I've submitted that passed the House is a bill
that's got adequate funding, its got the need to -- its got high
standards, and that's what we want. If you lower the bar, and lower
the standards, you're not going to get the results you want in
society. We believe that people can achieve.
And the final ingredient that needs to happen is, is that we need
to get the faith-based initiative out of the United States Senate,
too. (Applause.) It's an initiative that recognizes that -- that
while on the one hand we don't want the church being the state, or the
state being the church, we shouldn't discriminate against programs that
come out of faith-based institutions -- (applause) -- all aimed at
helping people help themselves.
Listen, some of the best drug treatment programs and alcohol
treatment programs are programs that first help change a person's
heart, so they can make better choices in their lives. And so I'm --
I've come to this house to herald the programs, to call upon a good
law, for starters, out of Congress -- out of the Senate, so we can
get the Senate and the House, and get it to my desk, and give these
governors time to plan, to help people.
But I also come here because I recognize that some of the greatest
social programs in the country come out of houses of worship, of all
faiths, of all faiths. And so Pastor Greg, I want to thank you for
your leadership. I want to thank you for helping to live the adage,
you want to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. And
I appreciate a man who not only preaches, but a man who does.
(Applause.)
Thanks for giving us a chance to be here.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: It would be helpful if some of the dads paid their
child support, don't you think?
Q Yes. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Pastor, you've done great. I appreciate it.
Thanks.
Thank you ladies for sharing your stories. There's millions of
stories like yours: single moms who struggle to get ahead. By the
way, being a single mom is the toughest job in America. It's the
toughest job. (Applause.)
And so long as there's pockets of hopelessness, this country must
act, it must act. Anytime we find somebody who hurts, we've got to
love them. I tell people, if you want to fight evil, the evil done to
America, you do some good.
And the other interesting thing about what you all have done, is
your example serves to help save somebody else's life. And I want to
thank you for that, and thank you for sharing with us, and the country,
your great stories. You did really well. Very good job by all three
of you.
I want Tommy to say a few words. Tommy is in charge of getting the
law through the Senate, getting the differences between the House and
the Senate reconciled and on my desk, and then making sure it's
implemented in the right spirit. But Tommy, do you mind saying a
couple of things?
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Pastor, there's a couple of other things in the
bill that might interest -- for the people here. One of the thigns
that we try to promote in the bill is family. And we set aside money
for grant programs to states to encourage families to stay together.
Now I recognize, not all families are going to stay together. But the
more families we save, the more likely it is a child is going to have a
good chance of making it here in the country.
And so there's a strong initiative in there to promote families to
help people who are about to get married, to understand the
consequences of marriage, and then to help people who are married to
know they need to save their marriage, help them save that marriage.
The family is an important part of the future. And that money, as far
as I'm concerned, should be available for programs that work. We ought
to be asking the question, what works, and get out of the
process-oriented world that we sometimes find ourselves in government.
And I know that, Pastor Evans, you've got a family initiative in your
church, and I want to thank you for that.
The other thing -- the other part of the bill that obviously gets
a lot of heat, but it's one that I think makes a lot of sense, is that
we'll promote abstinence as well. (Applause.) We can argue the merits
of it -- whether or not it would be a part of the bill, but I tell
you this, if you're interested in what works, it works 100 percent of
the time. (Laughter and applause.)
So the bill is comprehensive in that sense, and it's all aimed at
helping people. It's -- that and this education reform. Listen, I
want your kids to go to college, and I want your kids to get the best
education possible. And we've passed a pretty good bill out of
Washington. It really does empower the state of Arkansas more than
ever before. And it says, every child can learn. I mean, it starts
with this premise, every child. It doesn't matter how your children
are raised, what the mom does for a living, every child can learn.
It also sets high standards. And see, I'm the kind of fellow who
believes in raising that bar. I believe in the best. I don't want
mediocrity, I want excellence in evertyhing we do. And so I'm
confident that the bill that is being debated up there now, combined
with the educationn bill, it's really going to make America a much more
hopeful place for every single citizen, not just a few of us, not just
a group of us, but every citizen. And that's really what we're aiming
for. (Applause.)
END 1:30 P.M. CDT
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