WASHINGTON INSIGHT

REFORM RISK: The White House, hoping to prompt private employers to hire people off welfare, has taken on six employees who formerly received public assistance. But at least one member of Congress is not inspired. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) asked FBI Director Louis J. Freeh last week whether his agency had investigated the “very serious security risks” surrounding the new hires. Barr’s suggestion that former welfare recipients are somehow dangerous prompted a storm of protest. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) noted that one of Barr’s House colleagues, Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma), once received welfare. White House spokesman Barry Toiv said all administration employees go through the same “rigorous” security clearances and drug-testing procedures, whether or not they were on welfare.

*

THE NAME GAME: It’s hard to argue with a family and sentimental favorite such as Buddy for the name of the First Pup. But among the thousands of names suggested by interested and dog-loving Americans, one that President Clinton failed to mention Tuesday at his news conference was this one from the White House press corps: 101 Donations.

*

TWO-TIMER: Three Democrats are battling for the Chicago congressional seat vacated by longtime Rep. Sidney R. Yates; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has endorsed two of them. Boxer wrote to female voters in the district earlier this month, praising J.B. Pritzker--one of the nation’s richest men and a Boxer campaign contributor--”not only as a friend but as a longtime supporter of women’s issues.” But Emily’s List, a political action committee that collects and distributes donations for female candidates who support abortion rights--including Boxer--supports Pritzker’s bitter rival, state Rep. Janice Schakowsky. So Boxer let Emily’s List use her name in a pro-Schakowsky mailer that trashed Pritzker. “This is a situation with two very qualified candidates, and she wanted to support them both,” shrugged Boxer aide Roy Behr, adding that Boxer has endorsed dueling candidates before.

*

INSPIRATIONAL: Ever wonder what lawmakers do during those long, drawn-out, “boring” committee hearings? Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the Judiciary Committee chairman better known for opposing Anita F. Hill and Bill Lann Lee, says he sometimes writes songs. Hatch was seen Tuesday hawking his tunes on the Home Shopping Network, where his sales pitch for his “Freedom’s Light” and “My God Is Love” albums came between plugs for jewelry and dolls.

*

BUNGEE BUREAUCRATS: Two of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s senior aides celebrated a brief break in a weeklong trip to Africa by plunging almost 350 feet off a bridge over the Zambezi River. Policy planning chief Greg Craig and spokesman James P. Rubin bungee-jumped toward the river that forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Both said later that they had no intention of ever doing it again. A third aide also paid the $60 jump fee but sensibly did not leave the bridge.

*

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: If work continues apace, the Treasury Department will have figured out how to make its computer system understand post-2000 dates as early as 2004, according to a House committee analysis. And that’s quick: The departments of Labor and Energy won’t be ready until 2019.