Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 3.djvu/382

 110 STAT. 2112 PUBLIC LAW 104-193—AUG. 22, 1996 (C) Children born into families receiving welfare assistance are 3 times more likely to be on welfare when they reach adulthood than children not born into families receiving welfare. (D) Mothers under 20 years of age are at the greatest risk of bearing low birth weight babies. (E) The younger the single-parent mother, the less likely she is to finish high school. (F) Young women who have children before finishing high school are more likely to receive welfare assistance for a longer period of time. (G) Between 1985 and 1990, the public cost of births to teenage mothers under the aid to families with dependent children program, the food stamp program, and the medicaid program has been estimated at $120,000,000,000. (H) The absence of a father in the life of a child has a negative effect on school performance and peer adjustment. (I) Children of teenage single parents have lower cognitive scores, lower educational aspirations, and a greater likelihood of becoming teenage parents themselves. (J) Children of single-parent homes are 3 times more likely to fail and repeat a year in grade school than are children from intact 2-parent families. (K) Children from single-parent homes are almost 4 times more likely to be expelled or suspended from school. (L) Neighborhoods with larger percentages of youth aged 12 through 20 and areas with higher percentages of single-parent households have higher rates of violent crime. (M) Of those youth held for criminal offenses within the State juvenile justice system, only 29.8 percent lived primarily in a home with both parents. In contrast to these incarcerated youth, 73.9 percent of the 62,800,000 children in the Nation's resident population were living with both parents. (10) Therefore, in light of this demonstration of the crisis in our Nation, it is the sense of the Congress that prevention of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and reduction in out-of-wedlock birth are very important Government interests and the policy contained in part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (as amended by section 103(a) of this Act) is intended to address the crisis. SEC. 102. REFERENCE TO SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. Except as otherwise specifically provided, wherever in this title an amendment is expressed in terms of an amendment to or repeal of a section or other provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to that section or other provision of the Social Security Act. SEC. 103. BLOCK GRANTS TO STATES. (a) IN GENERAL. —Part A of title IV (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended— 42 USC prec. (1) by striking all that precedes section 418 (as added 601,601-610, by section 603(b)(2) of this Act) and inserting the following: 612, 613, 615— 617.

�