On June 22, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 4589) to extend the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) through September 30, 2004. The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent the same day. It will now go to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
The House approved a welfare reauthorization bill (H.R. 4) on February 13, 2003 (see The Source, 2/14/03). The Senate debated H.R. 4 earlier this year, but on April 1, a GOP leadership effort to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill failed (see The Source, 4/2/04). Since its expiration in September 2002, Congress has approved seven extensions of the 1996 law. The most recent extension will expire on June 30.
Expressing her support for the child care funding in the bill, Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) stated, “But I do wish that the Senate had taken up the reauthorization that we passed here on the House floor because it goes further. It begins looking at careers. How do we help women…not only think about how to go to work and how to meet the emotional needs of their children but how to go to work on the first rung of a career ladder. Then every year you move up, every year your salary progresses, every year you learn more, do more, take responsibility and get a greater reward in the form of a higher salary. So those, primarily women, can be not only role models for their children but successful economic and emotional parents.”
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) argued, “As Congress continues to debate welfare reauthorization, we have to remember that our goal must be to move women and their families from welfare to self-sufficiency, preventing the ongoing pattern of welfare to poverty. That is why I support making States accountable for helping families become self-sufficient by creating a standard to determine just how much a family needs to survive without public assistance in any particular State. That is why I want mothers to have access to educational opportunities and job training, to give them the skills they need for jobs that pay a livable wage. And that is why I know how important it is to provide quality child care, including care for infants and care for parents who work weekends and evenings.”
