Experiment on Welfare, Clinton Asks : Public aid: President tells governors to drop new approaches if they do not succeed. Republicans introduce reforms that they argue are consistent with Clinton promises.

President Clinton on Tuesday renewed his pledge to fix the welfare system and encouraged the nation’s governors to use federal dollars to experiment with welfare reform, but to “have the courage to quit” if their plans do not work.

In a speech to the National Governors’ Assn., Clinton repeated the list of reforms he proposed during his campaign, including providing welfare recipients with job training and education for up to two years but then requiring them to take jobs.

“We must begin now to plan for a time when people will ultimately be able to work for the check they get, whether the check comes from a private employer or from the United States taxpayer,” Clinton told the governors.

Although the President’s speech did not break new ground, it signaled an attempt by the Administration to continue focusing on domestic issues after being diverted for 10 days by such issues as the ban on allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed services and the hiring of illegal immigrants by Clinton’s former nominee for attorney general.

The strategy apparently met with some success. By the end of the day, Clinton was being credited with beginning the debate over welfare and with holding to his campaign pledge to reform the welfare system.

“I thought I was going to see this particular proposal buried like the middle-income tax cut, another broken campaign promise,” said Robert Rector, senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

But although the President promised to work with the states and create a Cabinet-level task force to develop a welfare reform proposal in the months ahead, Republicans on Capitol Hill raised the political ante on the issue by introducing welfare reform legislation that they argued is consistent with Clinton’s promises.

House Republicans said at a news conference that their welfare package can be moved through Congress quickly and need not wait for lengthy studies. If the President is serious about “putting an end to welfare as we know it,” he should secure the votes of liberal Democrats to ensure passage of the GOP legislation, the Republicans said.

“It’s going to be necessary for President Clinton to come forward on a bipartisan level in order for him to get the votes in Congress to pass welfare reform,” said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.).

Rep. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee’s human resources panel, said the Republicans were making a bipartisan effort “to start this process moving right now, not six months from now, not a year from now, but to give the President an opportunity to start with this and move forward.”

Although promising to work with the Republicans, subcommittee Chairman Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) said Democrats saw flaws in the GOP proposal. Matsui also said work on welfare reform is not likely to be finished before the Administration unveils its efforts to reform health care, stimulate the economy and narrow the federal budget deficit.

“Hopefully, after we complete those three, welfare reform will be ready for action in 1994,” Matsui said.

Also Tuesday, the Clinton Administration and congressional leaders denied reports that the White House has decided on a $31-billion jobs and economic recovery package that would include new federal spending and tax incentives for business investment.

Administration officials met Monday night with congressional leaders to discuss the White House economic agenda, to be announced Feb. 17. But Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), stressed Tuesday that no final figures on its size and contents were detailed.

The Clinton White House has decided to propose a short-term jobs package as part of its overall economic program.

Last week, officials said the economic stimulus package would contain $15 billion to $25 billion in new spending on public works, job training, child health and nutrition, and small tax cuts for business.

In addition to allowing states “more elbow room to experiment,” Clinton advocated a two-year job training or education program. Recipients would be required to find work by the end of the program or to begin performing government work in exchange for welfare.

Clinton also called for expansion of the “earned income tax credit,” which supplements the income of the working poor, and a crackdown on spouses who are behind in child support payments.

During the election campaign, Clinton estimated that welfare reform would cost $6 billion. Bruce Reed, the President’s deputy assistant for domestic policy, said the task force would undoubtedly refine that estimate.

Reed also said the President may head the welfare reform panel, which will include the heads of the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Education and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the chiefs of the Office of Management and Budget, the National Economic Council and the Domestic Policy Council.

Republicans and Democrats lauded Clinton’s focus on welfare reform.

“I am hugely gratified by the President’s statement on ‘changing welfare as we know it,’ ” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) said in a prepared statement.

Conservatives also credited the President with offering to break from traditional Democratic thinking on welfare reform.

California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican whose own attempts to change the welfare eligibility requirements in his state have been rejected by voters and the courts, also applauded Clinton’s promise to waive some federal rules and let states experiment with reform.

During the governors’ conference, which ended Tuesday, Wilson won support of an amendment that would let states seek waivers of federal rules and streamline the approval process.

“I didn’t even need to make the speech in favor of my own amendment” because Clinton had done so, Wilson said.

The Republican welfare reform bill, which has the backing of its party leadership, is similar to the President’s proposal in that it calls for up to two years of education, training, job search and work experience to prepare recipients for a permanent job.

“We are putting money on the table here, not an easy thing to do for Republicans,” Santorum said.

But Matsui said the proposal is unrealistic because it projects a total cost of about $3.6 billion--much lower than other estimates. Also, the Republican measure would eventually cut off payments to welfare recipients who are unable to find work.

Under Clinton’s proposal, after two years those unable to find private jobs would have to work at least part time for government.

Times staff writers Paul Richter, James Risen and Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this story.

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