[Page H7664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     URGING BIPARTISAN SUPPORT OF CASTLE-TANNER WELFARE REFORM BILL

  (Ms. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker has proclaimed this week 
reform week, and primary among those reforms for all of us will be 
welfare reform. I urge my colleagues this morning to join in a 
bipartisan effort, and support the Castle-Tanner bill.
  This is legislation that will successfully put people to work, will 
protect our children, and in particular, provide health care for those 
low-income children who are essential to our future growth. This bill 
will provide State flexibility. It will require maintenance of effort, 
but it will encourage and reward States that achieve that. In times of 
economic downturn, it will allow flexibility for States to meet those 
needs. Most important, Castle-Tanner does not raise taxes on low-income 
working people.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge us to continue to work together to produce a bill 
the President can sign. I am proud to have worked on the Castle-Tanner 
bill. It does achieve needed reforms, and I urge my colleagues, all of 
them, to support this effort.

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