State to Begin ‘Family Cap’ on Welfare

State welfare officials prepared Monday to implement one of California’s most sweeping and controversial welfare reforms after President Clinton approved letting the state drop additional cash payments for welfare families that have more babies.

The so-called “family cap” is aimed at discouraging births out of wedlock and is based on a view that “if you have additional children while you’re on welfare, it shouldn’t be the state’s obligation to pay for them,” said one Clinton Administration official.

Welfare advocates contend, however, that the program is based on the faulty assumption that some poor women become pregnant in order to receive more welfare money. They say the program will simply deprive poor children of proper care.

Aides to Gov. Pete Wilson said Clinton’s announcement was welcome. But Wilson, who has embraced a conservative package of welfare reforms as a cornerstone of his term as governor and his presidential race, blasted the President for offering too little, too late.

Clinton on Monday approved two of the five requests for welfare reforms that California has pending before the federal government. He made the announcement during a speech to the National Governors Assn. convention in Burlington, Vt. Together, state officials say the five reforms would save California taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.

Wilson complained that Clinton has been slow in approving the changes, costing California millions of dollars. The governor also said he does not believe the state should be required to negotiate changes.

“The President has spent too much time inside the Beltway and must have forgotten his experience as governor,” Wilson said Monday. “States are not colonies of the federal government. They should not have to come groveling to federal bureaucrats 3,000 miles away to decide the best course of action at the state and local levels.”

The family cap has been adopted by six other states since New Jersey first received permission from the George Bush Administration to use it in 1991. In California, it was part of Proposition 165, a welfare reform ballot measure that was rejected by voters in 1992.

The idea was subsequently rejected by the state Legislature twice before it was finally approved last year.

With the federal clearance announced by Clinton on Monday, state officials said they will soon begin to send out announcements to welfare offices about the pending implementation of the plan. The program will become effective about 10 months after the notices are posted in order to avoid penalizing any women who become pregnant before the plan’s activation.

State officials estimate that the program will save California about $213 million annually beginning with the 1997-98 fiscal year.

In addition to approving the family cap, Clinton also tentatively granted California’s request for a waiver from federal welfare rules in order to provide a package of incentives to encourage welfare mothers to get married and gain employment.