Panel Rejects Wilson’s Welfare Overhaul

Gov. Pete Wilson’s bill to overhaul welfare in California, including restricting jobless recipients to two years of public aid, was defeated Wednesday in a Senate committee.

The Democrat-dominated Health and Human Services Committee rejected the Assembly-passed bill on a party line vote, with two votes for the measure and six against. It needed five for approval.

The action capped an emotional hearing in which welfare mothers lined up to condemn the Republican governor’s plan while supporters cheered it on as necessary reform of a badly broken welfare system.

Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro (R-Paso Robles), who carried the Assembly-passed bill for Wilson, said the overhaul would “fundamentally reform welfare as we know it in California” by stressing work as an alternative to public assistance.

As one incentive, welfare parents would be dropped from the massive Aid to Families With Dependent Children program after two years if they failed to obtain employment.

But Senate Committee Chairwoman Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) charged that the bill would go further and repeal work training, child support, fraud prevention and other programs without clearly defined alternatives. “Is that what you want?” she asked.

Representatives of the Wilson administration conceded that many such programs would be eliminated, but they would be replaced by alternatives tailored to fit the needs of the 58 individual counties.

However, Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) suggested that “massive confusion” would occur if each county created and operated its own welfare program without statewide standards.

“We believe in having minimum standards that all counties would have to abide by,” said Eloise Anderson, the state director of social services.

The governor’s program is contingent upon Congress and President Clinton agreeing on welfare reform at the federal level, including sending block grants of funds to the states for use generally as they see fit. Witnesses told the legislative committee that is unlikely to happen this year.