Clinton Takes Steps to Keep Teen Moms at Home, in School

In a move to seize the high ground on welfare reform, President Clinton announced Saturday a four-step plan to ensure that teen mothers on welfare stay in school, remain with their families and chart a course for themselves and their children.

The president’s initiative, detailed in a series of executive orders, contains a combination of mandates and inducements designed to prevent teenage welfare recipients from using their cash benefits to move into their own quarters and abandon their education.

“We have to make it clear that a baby doesn’t give you the right and won’t give you the money to leave home and drop out of school,” the president said in his weekly radio address. “Today we are moving to make responsibility a way of life, not an option.”

The initiative, which takes effect immediately and could affect up to 60,000 California youths, makes several changes in existing welfare rules:

* All states are required to develop and implement plans to ensure that teenage welfare recipients complete high school.

* All states are allowed to give teen parents cash bonuses for staying in school, getting good grades and graduating. So far, 26 states, including California, offer some combination of bonuses and sanctions to promote school attendance, but they were required to obtain federal waivers to do so.

* All states are urged to take advantage of a provision of federal law that allows them to require teen mothers on welfare to live with their parents or other responsible adults. So far, 21 states have implemented such requirements. California is not among them.

* Teen mothers on welfare who have dropped out of school are required to sign personal-responsibility contracts that require them to resume their education and take responsibility for their future finances. If a teen breaks her contract, states are required to gradually reduce her cash benefits.

Republicans quickly pointed out that the president’s initiative addresses only a small portion of the changes necessary to overhaul the nation’s welfare system. They reiterated their criticism of Clinton for vetoing the sweeping welfare reform package the GOP-controlled Congress sent him last year.

“What he’s trying to do is save face for having vetoed our welfare bill,” said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), the chief architect of the GOP plan. This is nothing but hypocrisy; he’s trying to make the country forget he’s the one standing in the way of welfare reform.”

By moving forward with a narrow welfare reform proposal that does not require congressional endorsement, the president is attempting to strengthen his hand on the issue before the Nov. 5 election, administration officials said.

“We must make sure the welfare system demands that teen mothers follow the responsible path to independence,” Clinton said.

But Republicans criticized Clinton for dictating to the states through the initiative. “For him to think that the states need to be told how to handle welfare reform is absolutely ludicrous,” Shaw said, stressing that the GOP plan is to give states fewer mandates.

Administration officials said the initiatives are not expected to significantly add to states’ welfare costs. They estimated that the plan’s bonuses and penalties will tend to cancel out each other and that federal funds are available to reduce costs.

Clinton is focusing his unilateral welfare initiative on teenagers because they are at the highest risk of long-term dependency on public assistance and because Americans are particularly concerned about the societal damage wrought by children having children, administration officials said.

About 300,000 people younger than 19--a fifth of them in California--receive Aid to Families With Dependent Children, the government’s main cash welfare program.

Clinton’s announcement was designed to demonstrate that he is serious about correcting the welfare system and the values that it fosters, even if he does not agree with the methods favored by congressional Republicans.

“Voters want to feel like their government is looking carefully at the way they spend money and that government programs reflect their values,” said Melissa Skolfield, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. “That’s why welfare reform is top on their list. We believe we have a strong record to take into the election.”

In his radio address, Clinton urged Congress to pass a bipartisan welfare reform package. He did not mention his veto of last year’s congressional measure.

“If Congress sends me a welfare reform bill that is tough on work instead of tough on children and weak on work, I will gladly and proudly sign it,” Clinton said. “Meanwhile, I’m going to keep moving ahead to fix the welfare system by promoting work and looking out for our children.”

When he vetoed the GOP plan, Clinton complained that it was too harsh on disabled children and did not provide adequate funding for child care for welfare recipients who are pushed into work.

Senate Majority Leader and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole--as well as many congressional Republicans--have counted on scoring points against Clinton and Democrats in the November election by calling attention to the president’s veto.

In recent months, congressional Republicans have been at odds with one another over whether to pass another welfare reform package or to stall in order to preserve the issue for the campaign.

They now appear likely to unveil a new welfare reform package this week, but it is expected to draw a veto because it will include changes in the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor.

The White House, meanwhile, is busy trying to portray the president as an activist in the field of welfare reform, even though no major legislative package has been enacted.

During his radio address, Clinton cited several administration accomplishments in overhauling the welfare system without congressional action.

So far, he said, the administration has granted 37 states waivers to pursue welfare reforms, most of which attempt to put recipients to work and encourage responsibility for their children and their families’ financial futures. Since Clinton took office, welfare rolls have dropped 10%, to about 13 million, according to the Health and Human Services Department.

Clinton campaigned in 1992 on a promise to “end welfare as we know it,” and his administration introduced legislation to require younger recipients to take jobs and limit the time they can receive cash assistance. When Republicans swept the 1994 elections and made clear they would advance their own plan, Clinton bowed to their lead.

But he ultimately rejected the GOP plan, which would have ended the 60-year-old federal guarantee of cash assistance to poor families, given states lump-sum block grants to fund their own programs and set the first “lifetime” limit--five years--on cash benefits.