Lawmaker Now Hails Reforms She Once Feared

Early this year, as GOP lawmakers began preparing for their assault on federal welfare programs, the Clinton Administration counted Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) as one of its few allies on the Republican side of the aisle.

Johnson, well-known for her moderate views on social issues, openly stated that she believed several GOP reform provisions to be unfair, particularly one that would deny cash benefits to teen-age mothers. She expressed confidence that moderate Republicans would work together to eliminate some of the provisions that she found most objectionable.

But since then she has had a change of heart, reflecting a dramatic shift in attitudes that is evident throughout Congress.

Her metamorphosis mirrors a change that she believes has taken place in the hearts and minds of Americans across the country--the very shift that makes the GOP welfare reform plan politically viable today.

“In families, in churches, in communities, people are realizing (that) you really don’t help by relieving people of responsibilities,” Johnson said in an interview. “People began to realize we’ve gotten away from the fundamental deal that makes us a strong nation.”

In passionate speeches, she now praises the bill that a few months ago she said she would have trouble supporting.

Clinton Administration officials who once counted on her support maintained, however, that her new stance on welfare has much more to do with tough party discipline enforced by the new GOP leadership than with a deep philosophical shift of her own.

Johnson long has been seriously concerned about the welfare issue. Last year she authored a Republican version of welfare reform that closely resembled the President’s plan--with more carrots and fewer sticks than the current GOP package.

But her views evolved over several months, she said, as she asked questions at congressional hearings and talked to welfare recipients, social workers and constituents.

She attributed the change primarily to wrestling with the question of what policy would send the right signal from the government to the people.

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“What’s changed in my thinking, more and more,” she said, “is that we have to think: ‘What’s the message we’re sending?’ ” The right message from government, she said, is that “you’re responsible.” And the way to make people responsible for their own lives is by not coddling them the way the current system does, she said.

Along the way, Johnson came to believe that social policy can have a great impact on people’s behavior. She once was skeptical about that.

A seven-term Republican from a largely white, blue-collar district in northwestern Connecticut, Johnson said that she has been surprised by the impact the GOP welfare proposal already has had on welfare recipients in her state.

Welfare administrators in one of the small towns in her district told her that the attitude of recipients toward job training has changed markedly.

“Already there has been a change, just because of the public dialogue about our plan,” Johnson said. “We’re seeing people much more interested in classes, much more committed. They realize when they finish this class they are going to have to work. There’s a reality check out there.”

Perhaps the greatest change in her views has come on the issue of denying benefits to teen-age mothers.

“I’ve come to believe that eliminating benefits is a good thing for kids under 18,” Johnson said. “I do think it is fundamentally wrong to send a message that, because you had a baby, you are suddenly an adult. If you give someone an income, you are treating them as an adult.”

She now believes that the parents of minor mothers should be responsible, not the federal government.

Johnson said that her vote for the GOP welfare overhaul demonstrated her embrace of the Republican view that, if the nation is to move forward, no one should get something for nothing.

On this topic, she is even more strident than many of her Republican colleagues, some of whom wanted to exempt women with young children from the work requirement.

During a particularly passionate speech on the House floor this week, Johnson said that such an exemption would be equivalent to telling these women: “Stay home. Stay home. The studs are hanging around outside the door. Have a good time.”

Johnson said that she believes women should be required to work in some fashion as soon as they sign up for welfare, even if it means that they are taking care of the children of other welfare recipients who are going to school, training or searching for a job or working.

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She said “it’s humiliating to women” to offer them federal support without requiring them to give something in return.

While she has changed her mind on many topics, Johnson believes that the GOP welfare reform bill passed Friday is not generous enough with child care. She said she hopes that the Senate bill will guarantee child care to every welfare recipient who goes to work.

She is also concerned about a provision banning states from increasing welfare checks for families on the rolls who have babies but she said that she expects the Senate to change that.