December 15, 1967
Page 36914
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I approach the vote on H.R. 12080 with mixed feelings. The improvements in social security benefits, although less than the Senate had approved, do represent substantial benefits for more than 24 million Americans now eligible for benefits under the program.
At the same time, several features of the public welfare provisions of the bill are objectionable and regressive. They are provisions, which if allowed to stand, will hurt the program, injure hundreds of thousands of poor men, women and children, and hinder our search for a better answer to the vicious cycle of poverty which afflicts too many families in all areas of our country.
I object to the provision which restricts ADC benefits under the unemployment program to children of unemployed fathers with a "recent and substantial" connection with the labor force. This eliminates the current provision benefiting children of unemployed mothers.
I object to the mandatory employment features which affect mothers of children eligible for ADC payments. I recognize that horrible examples can be presented by those who complain of burgeoning ADC rolls; but I cannot agree that those who are poor should be treated as second-class citizens, and I cannot condone a policy which punishes parents by injuring their children.
I object to the provision which places a freeze on the total ADC payments in the several States as of the total number of cases outstanding January 1, 1968. This will not halt the increase in the number of poor. It will not solve the fiscal problems of the Federal, State or local governments. It will place an intolerable burden on those States and cities to which the rural poor are fleeing. They are seeking opportunity. They are threatened with poverty compounded by the dangers and horrors of the urban ghetto.
For these and other reasons, Mr. President, I am opposed to the conference report as it applies to welfare programs. At the same time, I recognize the problems we face because of the lateness of the hour, the complicated nature of the legislation, the equities of the older citizens whose right to adequate financial support is tied up in the legislation, and the adamant position of the House of Representatives on the issue. I have come to the reluctant conclusion that a delay in consideration of this legislation will not change the climate. It can only serve to confuse the issue, increase antagonisms among significant groups in the country toward the poor, and lessen our chances for correction of the adverse welfare provisions.
For these reasons, Mr. President, I am constrained to vote for the conference report. At the same time, I wish to announce my intent to work with my colleagues in a search for corrections in the existing, onerous welfare provisions and – more importantly – for new approaches to the problem of poverty and its destructive impact on millions of our citizens and on our society.
I hope that the Senate will not make the narrow question of the present conference report the focus of the poverty issue. Even if we corrected the pending legislation in line with the Senate version, we would, still have a long way to go. Our principal objective must be to use this legislation and its deficiencies as a base from which we can move to reform our society and correct the inequities which stand between millions of our fellow citizens and the promise of our Constitution.