Democrats Fail in Bid to Soften Welfare Bill

Senate Republicans blocked attempts by Democrats on Friday to modify provisions of a sweeping welfare overhaul measure that would end the federal guarantee of cash support to all eligible families.

As the Senate prepared to join the House in passing the welfare bill, Republicans voted down several Democratic amendments, including one that would have allowed states to provide families kicked off welfare with continued aid in the form of vouchers for essential goods and services.

The voucher plan is one of the changes President Clinton has said Congress must make to ensure that he will not veto the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) warned that Democrats are likely to reject the bill if Republicans continue to resist their efforts to soften some of its tougher provisions.

“We want to protect children,” Daschle said. “If we fail on those amendments, my expectation is that a large percentage--perhaps almost all Democrats--will vote against” the bill. Daschle also said it was “too early to tell” whether Clinton will sign the measure.

Clinton vetoed the versions of welfare reform that Congress approved last year, and although he has spoken favorably about Congress’ current effort, he has not said that he will sign it.

The House approved its version of welfare reform Thursday and a final vote on the Senate measure is expected next Tuesday. After Senate approval, the two chambers will meet to work out their differences in a conference committee before presenting the bill to Clinton, probably early next month.

Both packages would limit welfare recipients to five years of cash assistance in a lifetime, the first time that the government has imposed such a limit. They also would require recipients to work after two years and give states broad flexibility to shape their own programs for moving people from welfare to work.

The measures would save the government an estimated $61 billion over six years, largely through cuts in food stamps and benefits to legal immigrants.

The Senate bill is less stringent than the House version in several respects and the president and other Democrats hope that it will be softened even more before it is passed. During debate Thursday, Democrats succeeded in passing provisions strengthening the safety standards for child care for welfare recipients who are forced to work under the plan. But most other Democratic attempts to change the bill failed.

The measure is in the form of a budget reconciliation bill, which means that amendments require 60 votes--nine more than a simple majority of 51. The voucher provision, for instance, received 51 votes. Daschle said that he hopes that level of support, which included some moderate Republicans, will persuade House-Senate conferees to insert the provision during their negotiations.

“Vouchers are probably the best tool we can devise to ensure that children are protected,” Daschle said.

Among the amendments yet to be considered is one that would strike down a provision that would permit states to take control of the federal food stamp program. The federal government would provide funding, although it would be in the form of unrestricted lump-sum grants.

Democrats argue that states might operate adequate programs during good economic times but that they would be likely to cut back during a recession or natural disaster, when the need for food stamps increases.

Another item on the Democratic agenda is an amendment by California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to enable legal immigrants now receiving benefits to continue to do so. It would not, however, extend benefits to future legal immigrants.

“I have a real problem with changing the law in midstream on people who are in this country legally, and who are elderly, disabled or truly unable to work to support themselves and their families,” Feinstein said.

As written, the bill would deny most benefits to most legal immigrants until they become citizens. Such a policy would have a major financial impact on California, where about 1 million elderly, blind, disabled and poor people rely on three federal programs: supplemental security payments, known as SSI; cash assistance to poor families with children, known as Aid to Families With Dependent Children; and Medicaid health care insurance for the poor.

The legislation would shift the burden of providing billions of dollars worth of aid to state and local governments, according to the California senators and the California Assn. of Counties. More than half of all immigrants receiving SSI payments live in California.

But Republicans countered that those who immigrate should not expect to be supported by American taxpayers.

“The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people on these programs who can and should be working,” said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). “What your bill does is take these people off the hook.”