Speech #1040254893

In short. the TannerCastle legislation represented responsible reform. The conference report did not. This is billed as "welfare reform." It is a scale back of benefits. It hurts children who have no control over their economic circumstances. It fails on the issue of legal immigrants who have played by the rules we established for living in the United States. In abdicating this responsibility. the Federal Government places a heavy financial burden on local governments. In California alone. additional costs of as much as $10 billion could burden counties over the next 6 years. Finally. the level of financial commitment that States must meet is inadequate to address the job which is being promised.