Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton took office as the forty-second U.S. president in January 1993.

The bipartisan welfare reform act of 1996 will finally put an end to America’s failed welfare system by stressing work and responsibility. This legislation enhances the enforcement of child-support laws, provides billions of dollars for child care to help mothers on welfare become working mothers, protects nutritional assistance to children in welfare families, and guarantees health care to Americans on welfare. However, Congress should correct some flawed provisions of the act, such as the reduction of nutritional assistance to children of working families and the denial of welfare benefits to legal immigrants.

Editor’s Note: The following statement was given on July 31, 1996, the same day that the U.S. Senate passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation...