Jim Greenwood

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding so we may engage in a brief colloquy. An essential purpose of this bill is to reduce out-of-wedlock, unintended and teenage pregnancies. Clearly the strategy to help us reach this goal is to ensure that poor families have access to family planning services. The gentleman's amendment states that ``notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, a state to which a grant is made under section 403 may not use any part of the grant to provide `medical services.''' I was concerned that the gentleman's amendment might be interpreted to mean that grant funds could not be used to provide family planning services. But the gentleman has assured me in conversations both yesterday afternoon and early this morning that it is not his intent to prohibit the States from using the block grant funds for family planning services. I hope the gentleman could assure me for the Record here, assure the House for the Record, as he did in our personal conversations, that his amendment will still permit States to use temporary assistant block grant funds for prepregnancy-related services.

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. I will be happy to have anyone respond to me if they will indeed respond to me. The issue is this. I have heard Members from your side of the aisle all night tonight talk about a cut in the child nutrition program, particularly the school lunch program. I just want to know how you square that with these facts. When you ran the show here, you did 3.1 percent more in the current fiscal year for school lunch programs. The President of the United States proposes 3.6 percent, and we offer 4.5 percent for 5 years. I want to know what you have to complain about compared to what you did when you were in control and what the President proposes.

Mr. GREENWOOD. Let us talk in those terms.

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. Since I yielded half of my time last time, would the gentleman yield me 30 seconds?

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Speaker, may I request a point of order? Am I able to request two more minutes?

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Chairman, the American people widely support maintaining a strong social service system which provides for children, the handicapped, the elderly and those who truly cannot find employment. At the same time, Americans have come to believe that the system now in place, not only fails to foster self-reliance, but may actually promote out-of-wedlock births. While we must maintain a compassionate social safety net, I am convinced that we can do a better job of instilling self-reliance and discouraging irresponsible behavior within our welfare system. H.R. 4 offers the first comprehensive package of welfare reform measures in nearly half a century. Its fundamental tenets are: (1) those welfare recipients who are able-bodied must work in exchange for benefits; (2) programs must be designed to discourage--not facilitate out-of-wedlock births; and (3) the States, which already operate their own welfare programs, will receive blocks of Federal money to provide additional social services within Federal guidelines. The media has done a less than complete job of informing the general public about the nutrition and child care portions of H.R. 4. It is time that they know all of the facts. First, we are not reducing funds for school lunch. The truth is this measure increases funding for school lunch by $1.1 billion over 5 years. Second, we are not reducing funds for women, infants, and children. The truth is the bill increases WIC funding by $776 million over 5 years. Third, we are not reducing funds for child care. The truth is the bill makes $200 million more available for direct child care services. I care about the future of our Nation's children. However, if the Federal Government continues to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt each year, our children won't have a future. Establishing flexible, State-based programs that promote personal responsibility and self-reliance is a necessary step toward developing a sound fiscal policy. As a former social worker and the father of four, I know the importance of ensuring the safety and health of all children. H.R. 4 offers compassionate, fiscally sound solutions which allow us to effectively help those in greatest need. As a former State Legislator, I am confident that the States and localities can effectively administer welfare programs without the Federal Government micro- managing their efforts.

Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Chairman, I rise to respond to some of the remarks made by my colleague, the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller], who talked about the inhumane and callous nature of those of us on this side of the aisle. I have to tell you I take a little bit of umbrage at that. I am a former child welfare worker. I have spent a number of years of my life in the homes of some of the most abused and neglected children in my community. I met my wife while she was a child protective worker there and she is still a social worker. I am the founder of the Pennsylvania Children's Coalition, a caucus that we formed in the Pennsylvania legislature, and I have been a child advocate for 20 years. When I was a social worker trying to spend all of my time protecting children, I had to take away from my time at least a day and a half each week to fill out the Federal forms so the bean counters in the bureaucracy in Washington could account for my time. I was not able during that time to go out and protect the children in my community. What we are doing is simply taking this program of child protective services, giving it to the States who have been operating it for years, increasing the funding from $4.4 billion to $5.6 billion over the next 5 years. And I will tell you from my personal experience, that is a smart and that is a compassionate thing to do. The gentleman also made reference to the notion of punishing teenage girls who have babies. What punishes teenage girls who have babies who are 14 and 15 years of age is to say to them, you and your little baby live in a tenement somewhere. We will send you this meager allowance and pretend that you can survive, and we know that they do not survive and we know that they are the most likely young people to abuse their own children. And what we are simply trying to say is, you do not become an adult by having a baby. If you are 14 or you are 15 and you are 16 and you have a baby, you still need more than ever the care of responsible adults, and we want to make sure that those teenage girls and their babies are cared for in proper settings where there are rules and there are limits and there is safety and they can be taught to raise their children properly and help to become successful as adults.

Mr. GREENWOOD

Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Speaker, on February 10, 1995, I inadvertently voted ``nay'' on rollcall vote 118, on passage of the Criminal Alien Deportation Act. I support the bill and intended to vote ``yea.''