[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[August 22, 1996]
[Pages 1328-1330]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Statement on Signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996
August 22, 1996
Today, I have signed into law H.R. 3734, the ``Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.'' While
far from perfect, this legislation provides an historic opportunity to
end welfare as we know it and transform our broken welfare system by
promoting the fundamental values of work, responsibility, and family.
This Act honors my basic principles of real welfare reform. It
requires work of welfare recipients, limits the time they can stay on
welfare, and provides child care and health care to help them make the
move from welfare to work. It demands personal responsibility, and puts
in place tough child support enforcement measures. It promotes family
and protects children.
This bipartisan legislation is significantly better than the bills
that I vetoed. The Congress has removed many of the worst provisions of
the vetoed bills and has included many of the improvements that I
sought. I am especially pleased that the Congress has preserved the
guarantee of health care for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled.
Most important, this Act is tough on work. Not only does it include
firm but fair work
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requirements, it provides $4 billion more in child care than the vetoed
bills--so that parents can end their dependency on welfare and go to
work--and maintains health and safety standards for day care providers.
The bill also gives States positive incentives to move people into jobs
and holds them accountable for maintaining spending on welfare reform.
In addition, it gives States the ability to create subsidized jobs and
to provide employers with incentives to hire people off welfare.
The Act also does much more to protect children than the vetoed
bills. It cuts spending on childhood disability programs less deeply and
does not unwisely change the child protection programs. It maintains the
national nutritional safety net, by eliminating the Food Stamp annual
spending cap and the Food Stamp and School Lunch block grants that the
vetoed bills contained. In addition, it preserves the Federal guarantee
of health care for individuals who are currently eligible for Medicaid
through the AFDC program or are in transition from welfare to work.
Furthermore, this Act includes the tough personal responsibility and
child support enforcement measures that I proposed 2 years ago. It
requires minor mothers to live at home and stay in school as a condition
of assistance. It cracks down on parents who fail to pay child support
by garnishing their wages, suspending their driver's licenses, tracking
them across State lines, and, if necessary, making them work off what
they owe.
For these reasons, I am proud to have signed this legislation. The
current welfare system is fundamentally broken, and this may be our last
best chance to set it straight. I am doing so, however, with strong
objections to certain provisions, which I am determined to correct.
First, while the Act preserves the national nutritional safety net,
its cuts to the Food Stamp program are too deep. Among other things, the
Act reinstates a maximum on the amount that can be deducted for shelter
costs when determining a household's eligibility for Food Stamps. This
provision will disproportionately affect low-income families with
children and high housing costs.
Second, I am deeply disappointed that this legislation would deny
Federal assistance to legal immigrants and their children, and give
States the option of doing the same. My Administration supports holding
sponsors who bring immigrants into this country more responsible for
their well-being. Legal immigrants and their children, however, should
not be penalized if they become disabled and require medical assistance
through no fault of their own. Neither should they be deprived of food
stamp assistance without proper procedures or due regard for individual
circumstances. Therefore, I will direct the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to accelerate its unprecedented progress in
removing all bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of citizenship
for legal immigrants who are eligible. In addition, I will take any
possible executive actions to avoid inaccurate or inequitable decisions
to cut off food stamp benefits--for example, to a legal immigrant who
has performed military service for this country or to one who has
applied for and satisfied all the requirements of citizenship, but is
awaiting governmental approval of his or her application.
In addition to placing an undue hardship on affected individuals,
denial of Federal assistance to legal immigrants will shift costs to
States, localities, hospitals, and medical clinics that serve large
immigrant populations. Furthermore, States electing to deny these
individuals assistance could be faced with serious constitutional
challenges and protracted legal battles.
I have concerns about other provisions of this legislation as well.
It fails to provide sufficient contingency funding for States that
experience a serious economic downturn, and it fails to provide Food
Stamp support to childless adults who want to work, but cannot find a
job or are not given the opportunity to participate in a work program.
In addition, we must work to ensure that States provide in-kind vouchers
to children whose parents reach the 5-year Federal time limit without
finding work.
This Act gives States the responsibility that they have sought to
reform the welfare system. This is a profound responsibility, and States
must face it squarely. We will hold them accountable, insisting that
they fulfill their duty to move people from welfare to work and to do
right by our most vulnerable citizens, including children and battered
women. I challenge each State to take advantage of its new flexibility
to use money formerly available for welfare checks to encourage the
private sector to provide jobs.
The best antipoverty program is still a job. Combined with the newly
increased minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit--
[[Page 1330]]
which this legislation maintains--H.R. 3734 will make work pay for more
Americans.
I am determined to work with the Congress in a bipartisan effort to
correct the provisions of this legislation that go too far and have
nothing to do with welfare reform. But, on balance, this bill is a real
step forward for our country, for our values, and for people on welfare.
It should represent not simply the ending of a system that too often
hurts those it is supposed to help, but the beginning of a new era in
which welfare will become what it was meant to be: a second chance, not
a way of life. It is now up to all of us--States and cities, the Federal
Government, businesses and ordinary citizens--to work together to make
the promise of this new day real.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
August 22, 1996.
Note: H.R. 3734, approved August 22, was assigned Public Law No. 104-
193.
Why was the the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 created?
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) was part of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, designed to bring about drastic alteration in the American welfare system and end the cycle of dependency that many believed the system had spawned.
What is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 1996 quizlet?
A provision of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children, ending cash assistance entitlements and setting time limits on benefits.
What is the 1996 welfare reform legislation?
The 1996 legislation stated that the purposes of the program were to assist needy families, fight welfare dependency by promoting work and marriage, reduce nonmarital births, and encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.
What was the purpose of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 quizlet?
1996 law that established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in place of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and tightened Medicaid eligibility requirements.