"The President is absolutely wrong when he said, ‘The (Senate) bill would

hurt the very people we're trying to help.’ The Senate bill has bi-partisan

support and expands education and training, restores benefits to legal

immigrants, and provides help to low-wage workers and children. While

significant improvements can and should be made when the bill goes to the

Senate floor, this bill goes miles further than the President’s proposal.

The Senate bill would actually help people get out of poverty, and would

provide the support people need to get to work. the President's proposal

would not. the President's proposal would do nothing for the 87% of kids on

welfare in Los Angeles who do not have childcare, it would do nothing for

the over 77% of people in welfare to work activities who do not have

transportation, it would do nothing for all the people leaving welfare for

poverty-wage jobs."

The US Senate debate on welfare is expected in the coming weeks and

how they vote on will greatly impact Los Angeles County, which is third

in terms of numbers of recipient families after the entire state of

New York and California. President

43,000 of Los Angeles County families on welfare are bracing for January 2003,

when their safety net will be cut-off and they will be faced with a less than

hopeful job market with little or no training and child-care for

only a faction of those who need it.

The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support (NCJIS), a project of the

Center for Community Change (CCC), is a coalition of more than 1000

grassroots anti-poverty groups that been organizing since 2000 to transform

TANF into a meaningful anti-poverty program. Under the banner Make TANF

Work! (www.maketanfwork.org), the National Campaign is spearheading a

national effort to fashion a progressive policy and political strategy on

welfare reform reauthorization.

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