White House Plans Bipartisan Summit to Create Strategy for Welfare Reform : Policy: Conference will include governors, lawmakers and local officials. The move is an attempt to seize the initiative from the GOP.

Seeking to seize the initiative from Republicans on welfare reform, the White House announced Thursday that it will convene a high-profile national conference next month to create a strategy on the politically popular issue.

The White House hopes that a welfare conference will allow President Clinton to wrest control of the issue from incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other Republicans, who have dominated the debate since the elections last month.

Even as the White House announced its plan, however, leading Republican lawmakers met quietly with influential GOP governors in an attempt to seal the fate of a welfare overhaul even before Congress convenes on Jan. 4. The Republicans believe that they may be able to preempt the President by reaching a swift consensus among GOP members of Congress and governors.

The White House initiative reflects Clinton’s fear that unless he moves swiftly and forcefully, GOP lawmakers will grasp the agenda as soon as Congress convenes. The White House had even considered moving the State of the Union Address to early January, but then decided to go with a traditional date later that month.

The high-level tug-of-war over welfare shows that both parties understand how troubled the system is and how appealing it would be to voters if they could claim to have made major reforms.

Clinton said the welfare summit has the support of a bipartisan group of governors.

“Americans have asked their elected officials to put aside politics as usual and begin earnest work to solve our nation’s problems--and welfare reform is at the very top of our agenda,” the President said as he was leaving for the three-day Summit of the Americas in Miami.

Governors, lawmakers and local officials from both parties will be invited to the conference, which will be held behind closed doors at the White House and chaired by Clinton, officials said.

White House officials believe that Republican governors and lawmakers will feel pressured to take part, lest they be accused of partisan obstructionism. One official expressed confidence that even Gingrich and incoming Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) would attend.

“I’m sure they would want to attend something this important,” the official said.

Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) said news of the welfare conference would suspend debate on the issue and prevent various groups from solidifying their positions.

“This does put the President back into the mix in a major way. He then becomes the dominate player in all this,” said Matsui, a veteran lawmaker whose voice on welfare reform was very influential before Republicans took over the House.

Clinton already has leverage because of his veto power, Matsui stressed, but by holding the conference he gains an early, influential role in the crafting of legislation, instead of responding to decisions that have already been made.

Both parties have been talking about changing welfare programs in order to force recipients to take financial responsibility for their families and to discourage people from having children they cannot afford.

But the welfare reform plan laid out in the Republicans’ “contract with America” bears little resemblance to the carrot-and-stick approach that Clinton and his allies envisioned.

Both the White House and the GOP plans would limit Aid to Families With Dependent Children to two years. But that’s where the similarities stop.

Under the President’s proposal, the government would become the employer of last resort, guaranteeing subsidized jobs for those who could not find them in the private sector.

The Republican version offers no such security. It gives states the option of extending cash benefits in exchange for work, but only for three additional years.

The GOP plan would also deny benefits to teen-age mothers and their children and to families where legal paternity is not established for the children. It also mentions orphanages as an option for children whose parents cannot afford to raise them and would make legal immigrants ineligible for scores of benefits they now receive.

Republican governors favor yet another solution. They want the federal government to give them the flexibility to craft welfare reform strategies to their states’ needs.

“Conservative micro-management is only slightly better than liberal micro-management,” Michigan Gov. John Engler, a Republican, said in an interview. “There’s a presumption in Washington that one size fits all. It doesn’t.”

White House officials said the President’s initiative shows that he is adjusting to the new reality in Washington.

“It’s a new day. Clearly, we have to find new ways to work together with Republicans,” said Bruce Reed, a White House adviser on domestic issues. “It time for everyone to roll up their sleeves and work.”

That was just what Republican governors and lawmakers were doing in Washington on Wednesday night and Thursday, according to sources close to the governors and congressional aides.

The Republican leaders criticized Clinton for failing to act sooner on his campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it” and for his inability to solidify Democrats behind one plan.

“We’re trying to avoid that and have a uniform approach from the Republican governors and members of the House and Senate,” said Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.), who attended a private meeting Thursday with Republican senators, representatives and governors.

During the meeting, the Republicans agreed in principle that states should have much more authority over their welfare programs and that reforms should save, not cost, money.

Camp said the participants vowed to review all of the more than 300 programs they loosely defined as the government welfare apparatus. They also agreed to consider consolidating some programs and converting funding for others into “block grant” payments to states, with state officials empowered to design their own aid programs free of many existing federal restrictions.

Aides to the officials planned to continue meeting during the next several weeks, and Camp said his subcommittee would probably launch hearings on the issue soon after Congress convenes, even before any draft is completed.

“The President did not seize the initiative on this issue upon being sworn into office,” said Camp, who will sit on the Ways and Means subcommittee that will draft welfare reform legislation. “It was a major part of his campaign. But then he got into office and didn’t do anything about it. I think he’s trying to play catch-up now. He’s way behind the curve.”