While this effort at welfare reform contains both a few improvements and some further steps backward. it still poses dangers to children. This bill will abandon the basic Federal assurances of aid for poor children and families. make deep cuts in food stamp and SSI benefits. This bill would cause older children to lose their AFDC benefits. and provide inadequate child care funding for parents who are required to work. and it would eliminate almost all help for legal immigrants in need. Welfare reform is synonymous with women and children which means that the $53 billion in spending cuts over 6 years will hurt them disproportionately. This bill will reduce food stamps by $23.2 billion. it will reduce Supplemental Security Income [SSI] by S9.6 billion and aid to legal immigrants by $17.1 billion. In the State of Texas alone. 137.641 children would be denied aid by the year 2005 because of the federally mandated 5 year limit on receiving welfare benefits. There will be 46.986 babies in Texas who would be denied aid in the next 4 years because they were born in families already on welfare. and another 89.327 children in Texas would be denied aid if the State froze its spending on cash assistance at the 1994 levels.
Keywords matched
immigrants