PRESIDENT CLINTON?S RADIO ADDRESS TO THE NATION:
ANNOUNCING WELFARE REFORM ACHIEVEMENTS AND
BUDGET WINS FOR AMERICA?S FAMILIES
Today, in his weekly radio address, President Clinton will announce new
victories for the American people in the recent budget agreement, and new
progress in moving people from welfare to work. He will announce $200
million in bonuses to states with the best performance in placing welfare
recipients in jobs and helping them succeed in the workforce, and new
figures showing that welfare caseloads have dropped by more than 8 million
recipients over the past 8 years ? the lowest level in over three decades.
To build on this success, President Clinton will call on states to invest
available resources and use the flexibility provided by this Administration
to support working families and help even more parents on welfare enter the
workforce. President Clinton also will highlight new achievements in the
bipartisan FY 2001 budget agreement to expand access to health coverage and
child care, increase investment in hard-pressed communities, and invest in
high quality education for our nation?s young people.
WELFARE CASELOADS CUT NEARLY 60 PERCENT SINCE 1993. The President will
release new data showing that welfare caseloads have dropped by 8.3 million
? nearly 60 percent ? since 1993 from 14.1 million to 5.8 million
recipients as of June 2000. Since the welfare reform law was signed in
August 1996, caseloads have declined by more than 50 percent. These
dramatic caseload reductions bring welfare caseloads to the lowest level
since 1968 and the proportion of the total U.S. population on welfare is
down to 2.1 percent, the lowest in 37 years.
BONUSES AWARDED TO STATES FOR WELFARE TO WORK SUCCESS. The President will
announce that 27 states and the District of Columbia will share $200
million in bonuses for superior results in reforming welfare. This is the
second year that the high performance bonuses, which the President fought
hard to authorize in the 1996 welfare reform law, will be given to the
states with the best results and greatest improvement in moving parents
from welfare into jobs and promoting their success in the workforce,
measured by job retention and earnings gains. The states ranked the
highest in each category are Idaho (job placement), Arizona (job success),
Arkansas (biggest improvement in job placement) and Wisconsin (biggest
improvement in job success). Other states that were in the top ten for one
or more of these categories and will receive bonuses are: AL, CA, CT, DE,
D.C., FL, HI, IL, IN, MN, MO, MI, MT, NV, NJ, NC, ND, OK, TN, TX, UT, VA,
WV, and WY. Nine of these states will receive bonuses in more than one
category, with Arkansas, Hawaii and Wisconsin winning in three categories.
In August, the Department of Health and Human Services released a final
rule that will add new measures for future high performance bonuses,
offering incentives for states to provide health coverage, food stamps and
child care for eligible families and to encourage the formation of
two-parent families.
NEW DATA SHOW MILLIONS GOING TO WORK. Between October 1998 and September
1999, 1.2 million welfare recipients nationwide went to work, according to
reports filed by the 48 states and D.C. competing for the bonus. Retention
rates were also promising, with 77 percent of those who got jobs still
working in the next quarter, and average earnings up by 31 percent for
former welfare recipients, from $2,027 in the first quarter of employment
to $2,647 in the third quarter. This builds on the President?s announcement
earlier this year that all 50 states and the District of Columbia met the
overall work participation rates for all families in 1999. The national
percentage of adults still on welfare who were working reached a record 33
percent in 1999, nearly five times more than in 1992. These remarkable
employment gains have been maintained even with record caseload declines
moving many of the more job-ready welfare recipients off the rolls, because
all levels of government, the private sector and welfare recipients
themselves have all done their part. The Welfare to Work Partnership,
launched in 1997, has grown from 5 founding companies to over 20,000
business partners, who have hired an estimated 1.1 million former welfare
recipients. Under Vice President Gore?s leadership, the federal government
has also done its fair share, hiring nearly 50,000 parents off of welfare.
And, with support from states and communities, families across America are
now working and taking responsibility for their children. Child support
collections have doubled since 1992, the poverty rate is the lowest in 20
years, and teen birth rates are at the lowest level in the 60 years on
record.
BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT EXTENDS HEALTH CARE COVERAGE FOR THOSE LEAVING
WELFARE FOR WORK. Health insurance is a critical support necessary to make
a successful transition from welfare to work. The budget agreement extends
the current policy of providing a year of Medicaid coverage for people
leaving welfare for work, which was scheduled to expire this year, for an
additional 12 months.
BUDGET AGREEMENT IS A VICTORY FOR AMERICA?S PRIORITIES. President Clinton
and Vice President Gore have fought for and won key funding in Fiscal Year
2001 to help expand opportunities and support America?s working families
for Fiscal Year 2001. This budget agreement makes unprecedented
investments in education and demands more in return by securing funding to:
help repair our crumbling schools, reduce class sizes in the early grades,
expand afterschool opportunities, enhance teacher quality, and hold schools
accountable for student achievement. This bipartisan agreement invests $35
billion over 5 years in Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP; increases public
health spending by 16 percent; and almost doubles our investment in
biomedical research since 1993. It also funds critical programs to help
cover more uninsured children; expand home health care; invest in hospitals
and nursing homes that serve low-income communities; and increase
investments in child care. It also includes passage of the President's
historic New Markets initiative designed to dramatically spur unprecedented
levels of new investment in low-income underserved communities across
America.
BUILDING ON A RECORD OF SUCCESS. Since taking office, the Clinton-Gore
Administration has significantly expanded critical supports for working
families, raising the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit,
doubling child care funding, improving access to jobs by supporting
creative local transportation solutions, and giving families strong
incentives and new opportunities to move from welfare to work. This year
alone, the Administration worked with Congress to: secure 79,000 new rental
housing vouchers, bringing the Administration?s total to nearly 200,000;
enact important changes to the Food Stamp Program, making it easier to own
a reliable car and recognizing the impact of high housing costs on
low-income working families; invest $25 million to help low-income families
save through Individual Development Accounts; and provide states,
communities and nonprofits with an additional two years to utilize existing
Welfare-to-Work funds to help long-term welfare recipients and noncustodial
parents work and support their children.
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