Foley Forces Showdown, Seeks to End Child-Care Row

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) pushed hard Wednesday to end a bitter dispute between rival factions of House Democrats over a landmark child-care bill, one of the chief pieces of social legislation before Congress this year.

Foley’s aides said an agreement was within reach between forces headed by Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) that would avert an intraparty floor fight and open the way for House passage of the bill within the next two weeks.

“We’re close, but we’re not there yet,” said Rep. Thomas J. Downey (D-N.Y.), one of the key negotiators on Rostenkowski’s team.

The two factions are at odds over whether the final bill will create a new federal program to aid child-care providers or simply channel funds through an existing federal vehicle for financing social welfare programs.

Also at stake in the dispute is whether church-based centers, which currently provide about one-third of all child care, will continue to be eligible for federal funds.

Even if the House hurdles are overcome, both sides forecast a battle to reconcile the bill with competing proposals favored by the Bush Administration and the Senate.

An aide to Hawkins said the Speaker was seeking an armistice in the verbal war--as opposed to a lasting compromise--since both sides expected the fight to continue in a Senate-House conference committee, where a final version of the bill would be drafted.

But the armistice would allow the measure to get through the House and into a forum where it was less likely to remain deadlocked, congressional sources said.

Foley, usually known for his amiable style of leadership, decided to force a showdown in this case because an expanded child-care program is near the top of the Democrats’ legislative agenda and the deadlock showed no signs of being resolved by the opposing factions.

By insisting on a House vote by the end of March, Foley put pressure on the two groups to end the long impasse rather than face a bruising floor battle that could leave lasting scars with no guarantee of success for either side.

Hawkins, chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, wants to create a new system of federal grants to expand access to child care, a position known as the “ABC” approach.

He has the backing of organized labor and other national organizations, including the Children’s Defense Fund, that have been among the chief proponents of child-care legislation over the years.

Rostenkowski, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, wants to earmark funds for child-care grants to states under Title 20 of the Social Security Act to avoid creating a new federal bureaucracy and to mute a possible church-state conflict over child care.

The legislation backed by the Hawkins group contains language forbidding “any sectarian activity” in federally financed centers. Opponents of that provision contend that it would discourage use of religious institutions for child care.

Last fall, House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) promised that the language would be removed during a Senate-House conference. Despite lengthy negotiations, the issue remained unresolved Wednesday and could prove to be a sticking point.

Under one proposal to end the impasse among Democrats, the House leadership would support a bill that would include some provisions endorsed by Hawkins’ committee and others favored by Rostenkowski’s group.

For example, the bill would authorize spending $1.75 billion for an expanded Head Start program to provide daylong care and year-round services, plus a new school-based program for early childhood development as well as preschool and after-school care. Those provisions were part of the Hawkins bill.

But provisions dealing with a new system of federal grants to states would be dropped from the leadership bill, with the understanding that Hawkins and his supporters would be able to fight for their approach during a Senate-House conference on the bill.

Conference committee negotiators will seek to craft a compromise that will be acceptable to both sides and produce a bill that President Bush will sign into law.

Downey already has discussed the child-care bill with John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, in hopes of averting a veto when a final version of the measure reaches the President’s desk.