wfn.org | NCCCUSA EXEC "DISAPPOINTED" THAT CLINTON WILL SIGN WELFARE BILL

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC8/2/96                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC ASSOCIATE GENERAL SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC POLICY
"DISAPPOINTED"
AT PRESIDENT CLINTON'S DECISION TO SIGN WELFARE
LEGISLATION

 NEW YORK, August 2 ---- National Council of
Churches Associate General Secretary for Public
Policy, the Rev. Dr. Albert Pennybacker, says he is
"disappointed" at President Clinton's announcement
that he intends to sign the welfare reform
legislation emerging from Congress.

 The NCC had called on Clinton to veto the
legislation, asserting that it will take away from
the nation’s poorest residents much of the meager
safety net that now supports them and plunge
hundreds of thousands -- perhaps millions -- of
people into poverty.

 Dr. Pennybacker, at a July 29 news conference
in Washington, D.C., urged members of the nation's
churches to "insist on changes in the legislation so
that it expresses our compassion for those who
suffer, especially the children.  Call for a veto by
the President until we get it right!"

 The NCC’s General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Joan
Brown Campbell, on July 18 asserted that “the moral
vision that claims us had led us to craft a society
committed to providing for and protecting the poor,
the vulnerable, the children, the elderly, the
strangers in our midst ....  (W)e must at least
maintain minimal national standards for the safety
of all children, regardless of the state of life or
the family circumstance in which they chance to be
born; and we must uphold fair and just opportunities
for the life of every child to be happy, productive
and good."

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