Bipartisan Bid to Reform Welfare, Medicaid Falters

A high-profile, bipartisan effort by the nation’s governors to break the deadlock between Congress and President Clinton on welfare and Medicaid reform all but collapsed Thursday amid escalating election-year rancor.

The turn of events apparently sets the stage for the GOP majority in Congress to push through a bill to reform welfare and Medicaid without much Democratic support. The measure would then almost certainly draw a presidential veto and become a hot campaign issue for both sides.

The breakdown emerged in a bit of political theater that began with a morning press conference, led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), at which a group of Republican governors announced that their Democratic counterparts had agreed to a detailed plan to revamp Medicaid and welfare, climaxing more than 125 hours of face-to-face negotiations. They said that such a bill would be ready for House and Senate action within two weeks.

But that announcement was quickly and unequivocally disavowed by the three Democratic governors involved in the marathon negotiations. The three had not been told of the all-Republican news conference, much less invited to attend.

Democratic governors Robert Miller of Nevada, Roy Romer of Colorado and Lawton Chiles of Florida said in a joint statement that “today’s announcement was unfortunate and extremely premature.”

Considerable work remains to be done on the proposal, the statement said, and it noted that there had been no discussion of--much less agreement on--linking welfare reform to Medicaid reform.

Some independent analysts suggested that the GOP’s move amounted to an exit strategy spawned by a realization that a genuinely bipartisan proposal could not be reached and enacted in the time left during the congressional session before the election season overshadows all else.

An aide to one of the Democratic governors said: “Only in Washington could a gathering of Republican senators, Republican governors, the Republican speaker of the House be called bipartisan. It’s surreal.”

The GOP governors said at their press conference that Democrats were not included because only Republican governors were in Washington, where they were meeting with Republican congressional leaders, as they do quarterly.

Miller, Romer and Chiles were not informed of the press conference, according to an aide to one of the governors.

“If the Democratic governors believe that this is no longer about getting a bill done but about presidential politics, they’re out of here,” said another Democratic staff member. “This is by no means some speed bump . . . but a real breakdown.

“We can still put this thing back together,” the aide added. “But there’s going to be nothing easy about that.”

Late last year, Congress passed a sweeping welfare reform bill but Clinton vetoed the measure, saying that it contained unacceptably deep cuts in aid and no meaningful work requirements.

The nation’s governors breathed new life into welfare and Medicaid reform in February by unanimously adopting a set of principles during their winter meeting here that was seen as the final potential vehicle to break the Congress-White House deadlock.

Since then, however, the issue has grown contentious and partisan as their efforts closed in on the details, according to those who have been in the negotiating sessions.

Also on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said in Atlanta that the Clinton administration still hopes that it can work out a deal with Congress that leads to reform of the nation’s welfare program, according to wire service reports.

“But it must be one that moves people from welfare to work and protects children,” she said.

Among the GOP governors at the Thursday press conference was Wisconsin’s Tommy G. Thompson.

He is expected to sign a welfare bill that passed his state’s legislature Thursday in Madison. It would force people on welfare, most of them women, to get jobs.