“I didn’t need to talk about putting in a bill.”
I had just completed a meeting with top Department of Human Resources officials. The topic was a pilot program to involve the non-custodial or absent father in the pregnant mother’s application for public benefits.
I’m still interested in welfare reform, even though it’s been nine years since I chaired the Appropriations subcommittee that dealt with the issue.
Last month, I heard Joe Jones speak on the topic at Johns Hopkins. Joe is a national leader in helping low-income men fulfill their roles as fathers, emotionally and financially.
My goal at today’s meeting: the state government would agree to a pilot program where both the mother and the father would meet with a case worker to discuss how they can best raise their child. That includes child support payments, a healthy personal relationship, and seeking work.
Just before the meeting began, I said to Joe, “If things don’t go well, I’ll remind everyone that I can introduce legislation on this matter in January.”
The meeting went very well. Afterwards, I told Joe that I didn’t need to speak to a bill drafter.
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I was reminded earlier today that most times you do need a bill to achieve your objective.
I went to a hearing on Capitol Hill for the Holocaust Rail Justice Act. This legislation would allow Leo Bretholz and the other survivors who were transported to the Nazi death camps by the French national railroad (SNCF) to sue the company.
Leo had movingly testified for my bill requiring disclosure of SNCF’s records for these transports. He was just as eloquent today when speaking of the elderly woman who urged him to escape from the cattle car heading for Germany.
“I can still see her face and hear her voice today. She emboldened me.”
“This was not coercion by the Nazis,” he continued. “This was business for SNCF.”
Next Monday is the deadline for companies to submit their bids for running the MARC commuter rail line in Maryland. For SNCF’s American subsidiary to be eligible, it must digitize its records consistent with the law we passed.
