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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release August 3, 1995

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I strongly support the Work First bill proposed by Senators Daschle, Breaux, and Mikulski. Instead of maintaining the current welfare system -- which undermines our basic values of work, responsibility, and family -- this plan sends people to work so they can earn a paycheck, not a welfare check. It provides the child care people need to move from welfare to work, and to enable them to stay off welfare in the first place. It holds state bureaucracies accountable for real results, and rewards states for putting people to work, not just cutting people off. It saves money by moving people to work, not by shipping the states more problems and less money. The Work First plan is real reform, and it should be the basis for a strong bipartisan bill.

It is time for Congress to reach across party lines and pass real welfare reform. The American people have waited long enough.

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