Clinton Hails Progress on Welfare Reform : Legislation: President, in weekly radio address, says the long-awaited overhaul is at hand. GOP also looks forward to seeing bill signed into law.

President Clinton said Saturday that the nation is “within striking distance” of overhauling the welfare system, and he praised recent moves in the Senate to salvage the bitterly contested welfare bill.

“We’re on the verge of coming to grips with one of the most fundamental social problems of our time--moving people from welfare to work,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address. “Now we must finish the job, and we can’t let ideological extremism and politics-as-usual get in the way.”

Clinton said last week’s bipartisan deals on child-care funding, work requirements and other welfare-related measures “give us hope that a conclusion to this effort may be only days or weeks away.” The Senate, he added, showed “wisdom and courage” in rejecting the more extreme benefit restrictions proposed by conservatives.

The Senate bill is not as conservative as a House-passed measure, which denies benefits to teen-age mothers and has a family cap that forces states to freeze cash benefits for welfare recipients who have more babies. The two versions must be reconciled in a conference committee.

In the GOP response to the President’s message, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) predicted that the welfare overhaul would pass his chamber on Tuesday.

The Senate, Dole said, would approve “historic legislation to truly end welfare as a way of life and dramatically overhaul 60 years of failed welfare policy.”

“Once the Senate passes our plan this coming Tuesday, we will get together and we’ll resolve the few differences there are, and I hope President Clinton will then sign the bill.”

Last week, Dole agreed to add another $3 billion (for a total of $8 billion) to funding for child care so that welfare mothers can take jobs outside the home. A moderate group of Republicans and Democrats also forged an accord on providing financial incentives for states that succeed in shifting welfare recipients to unsubsidized jobs.

Nonetheless, Clinton suggested Saturday that a welfare deal was not a sure thing. Welfare reform remains an emotional issue, with some liberals arguing that the legislation offers insufficient aid to those in need and some conservatives contending that the benefits remain too generous.

“Make no mistake: If Congress walks away from this bipartisan progress, they will kill welfare reform,” the President said. “But we’ve worked too hard too long to let partisan extremism kill this effort.”

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who joined Dole in responding to Clinton, said that in addition to welfare reform, the GOP was on track to achieve an array of goals in the coming months.

“Balancing the budget; cutting taxes; replacing our failed welfare system with one that works; protecting, preserving and strengthening Medicare--those are the Republican goals for the next 60 days.

“I believe that here on Capitol Hill, the next 60 days will be as important as any in the next 60 years,” Gingrich said.

Clinton drew a broader significance from the Senate’s apparent agreement on welfare reform, saying that progress on the divisive issue is an important lesson that government can conquer other problems that long have resisted solution.