Welfare Reform

I strongly agree with your April 16 editorial stating that politicians who think there is nothing to gain by passing welfare reform are dead wrong.

As the chairman of the committee with responsibility for most of the welfare reform legislation, I can tell you that this Congress, like the American people, know that our country needs real reform of the destructive welfare system. Paychecks will replace welfare checks, families will be strengthened and children will be better off. That is why this Congress has done more to overhaul our broken-down welfare system than any Congress in recent history.

This same message, however, has apparently not gotten through to the White House. President Clinton said he wanted welfare reform, and last December Congress sent him a balanced budget bill that included comprehensive welfare reforms. He vetoed it. We sent him a separate welfare reform bill a month later. He vetoed that, too. We told the president that we were planning to send him the Senate welfare reform bill that passed with overwhelming Democrat and Republican support, and again he promised a veto even though he had earlier express support for that version.

The fact is that the only person who has blocked and who continues to stall welfare reform is President Clinton.

REP. BILL ARCHER

Chairman, Committee on Ways and

Means, Washington