Wendell Ford

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Did we get the yeas and nays on the second one?

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I yield back what time we might have on this side.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I am about to yield back what time we have. Is the Senator yielding his time?

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, we have an amendment that has been agreed to. I ask unanimous consent the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kerry], be given 60 seconds to offer his amendment and get it modified so it could be passed.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, we are now ready to accept the Harkin amendment.

Mr. FORD. Is it not true that this President has issued 67 waivers to 40 States, more than any President has issued?

Mr. FORD. Will the Senator yield for an additional question, Mr. President?

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I have just had an opportunity to sit down and read this amendment. I have operated as a Governor and understand what Governors like to say and what Governors like to do. Governors want the money now at the higher level but when we start decreasing the amount of funds the State receives, it is going to be difficult for them to reduce their expenditures or reduce the number, and so we find that is going to be somewhat difficult for them to do. I have some problem with us micromanaging any program. Mr. President, I looked at these projects that are here. Some of them sound good, others not necessarily. Fraud Detection Project, that sounds interesting. Actively Creating Tomorrow for Families Demonstration. I do not know, are you supposed to look at these and just approve them without studying them some? AFDC Barrier Removal Project; Intentional Program Violation Demonstration, Single Parent Employment Demonstration, Work-Not-Welfare and Pay For Performance, New Opportunities and New Responsibilities Demonstration. Now, I am hopeful that we can get a welfare bill that the President will sign. We hear a lot about 80-something to a few votes for a bill that we passed. If that bill had gone to the President's desk, my judgment is that he would have signed it. I think we are close to getting a bill that will be signed. I am one who wants to vote for welfare reform. I hope we can listen to Senators like the Senator from Louisiana and others who are trying to protect children. I think we have gone much, much too far in trying to be harsh on parents and then in turn being harsh on children. So, Mr. President, in listening to the Governors, the other side of the aisle, the Republicans are not listening to the Governors except in certain cases where they want to listen to them. We have endorsements of the National Governors' Conference as it relates to vouchers and the amendment of the Senator from Louisiana. The Governors have endorsed that. But they do not pay any attention to that one. We are going to be against it. I think it is wrong. So now the Governors want all this. Are we supposed to flip over and say, yes? You did not do that when I was Governor. I had to come up here and cry a little bit, shed some crocodile tears, try to get something more for my State. So I hope we will not try to micromanage this particular operation. As I say, the President has issued 67 waivers to 40 States. But none of these waivers, in my opinion, in reading them, are all directly welfare connected. Maybe they are. But some of the programs as they are listed lead me--work first, I like that. I like Gov. McWherter's program in Tennessee. I thought Governor Ned McWherter did a good job. It took a lot of bumps; it took a lot of skin off his back, as we say politically, but I thought Governor McWherter did a good job in Tennessee. So since I am here standing in for others, I hope that we will be very careful with the vote as it relates to micromanaging welfare. If we are going to give it to the States, let us give it to the States and let us do it in a bill; let us do it legislatively; let us do it statutorily, and let us not start telling the President what to do and what not to do, because their President did not do nearly as well as this President. You have to look at the number of jobs that we have had. That reduces the amount of welfare in a State--more jobs, less welfare. And I can take credit for unemployment being at a low level in my State. We are doing great. We have so many people off welfare. We are saving this kind of money. All these programs are working. But if the economy is good, Mr. President, then all States are going to look good, and as of now the economy is good and all States are faring somewhat better. I yield the floor.

Mr. FORD. I thank the Chair.

Mr. FORD. May I ask the Senator from Iowa, did the Senator offer two amendments?

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, how much time does this side have?

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I apologize. We have failed, and those on the other side have failed, to talk to the ranking member of the Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Inouye. It has not been cleared with him yet. I suspect that it will be. But I hope that the Senator will withhold this until such time as we might contact him. And that would be within a minute or two.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, why don't we ask unanimous consent that this motion be set aside? It would automatically come back, I say to the Senator, if that is all right. I ask unanimous consent, then, that this amendment be set aside so that we might proceed to the Faircloth amendment.

Mr. FORD. Will the distinguished Senator yield for one question?

Mr. FORD. I do not know whether we will oppose it. Give us 3 minutes.

Mr. FORD. It was somewhat different. You allowed it before and now you say you cannot.

Mr. FORD. Did the Republican welfare bill that was passed last year, the one that was proposed last year, have in it the same thing that the Senator from Louisiana is trying to propose now? In this bill have you restricted it more than the previous bill?

Mr. FORD. At the discretion of the State. Now you are not allowing it, you are cutting it off at the end of 5 years.

Mr. FORD. I say to the Senator I do not believe--you allowed noncash----

Mr. FORD. Would it be all right for Senator Breaux to go ahead with his?

Mr. FORD. All right, I ask him to renew it then, because at the time I was the culprit because we had not checked completely with the ranking members and now it has been cleared and we are in full support of Senator Roth's proposal.

Mr. FORD. Now, Mr. President, as I understand it, the Roth proposal is now the pending business?

Mr. FORD. I ask unanimous consent then that the Faircloth amendment be set aside temporarily.

Mr. FORD. May I ask the distinguished Senator from North Carolina a question. I understood the Senator to say to the Senator from Louisiana he would be able to amend it to be sure that door-to-door solicitation and that sort of thing was not acceptable but what he explained would be. Is there a chance we might set it aside and work out an agreement so it could be accepted and we would not have a vote?

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Bumpers] is necessarily absent.