Kicking dirt in the face of the millions of poor mothers who work every waking hour to keep their children safe and healthy, the House rubber-stamped the harsh 40-hour work requirements proposed by the President (without providing the before-school and after-school care that will be needed for the longer hours), seconded his proposal that time spent each week in education and skill-training would not count toward the 40 hours, and ponied up hundreds of millions of dollars for bogus abstinence and marriage promotion schemes. Leaving poor families to play a hand like that stacks the deck against their efforts to thrive.

Their steadfast refusal to provide a mechanism for accountability, or even measuring the productivity, of these programs appalls those of us who have spent years working in communities helping women battle the ills of poverty, violence, illiteracy and failing health. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds should go directly for food and housing and basic needs that can boost a family out of poverty, not to non-custodial parents or a government-funded chastity and dating service. After all, the NF in TANF stands for needy families -- not negligent fathers or nosy featherbedders.

Efforts to fund services and programs to directly help poor families were derailed by the Republican majority at every level of the process. When asked in committee hearings why the Bush Administration couldn't support additional funds for child care, which is funded at only a fraction of need, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson cited "the war" as an excuse.

Our country is too rich and bountiful to deny literacy and vocational education, drug rehabilitation, job readiness training and accessible, affordable, quality child care to struggling families. Forcing young mothers into dead-end jobs, without the education and skills that would truly allow them to support themselves and their families, not only ill serves those families, but also employers, the community and our nation.

NOW, after 36 years of working for full political, social and economic equality for girls and women, is most keenly disappointed in the handful of Republican women who stood beside House Speaker Dennis Hastert, D, Ill., yesterday and praised the callous House bill. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio; Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wa.; Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill.; Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa.; Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.; and Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y., owe their seats in Congress and their leadership roles to the early and tireless work of the bi-partisan women's movement to ensure their participation in the political process.

How sad that they found it so easy to turn their backs on the truth about the lives of low income and poor families. They surely would insist that their own daughters and granddaughters finish school, practice life-saving birth control, demand a job that fits their skills and dreams, get the best counseling and medical care for their problems and marry only when and if they choose. How can they forget that poor women deserve these same options and have these same dreams for their children?