Wednesday, September 18, 2002
New welfare bill stuck in Senate as ‘96 law expires in 2 weeks
A story released today by the Associated Press reports that the nation's welfare law expires in less than two weeks, and liberals and conservatives alike are pushing a slow-moving Senate to pass legislation renewing the program.
The welfare law, enacted in 1996 after a highly charged debate on how to aid the poor, funnels $16.5 billion a year to states for benefits, job training, child care and other provisions of welfare programs. Without action by Sept. 30, that money will stop flowing to the states, though most expect that Congress will, at a minimum, extend the current law.
The House approved legislation mirroring President Bush's welfare plan, requiring more people on welfare to work longer hours and adding hundreds of millions of dollars to promote marriage. The Senate Finance Committee passed a bill allowing for more education and training, more money for child care and more flexibility in spending the marriage money.
Still, House Republicans say they are waiting for the Senate to act so they can begin negotiations on a final package that Congress can send to Bush.
"The clock is ticking," Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., chairman of the House Ways and Means welfare subcommittee, said Tuesday. "I don't think we can allow this to fail. . . . There's millions of needy Americans who are depending on this."
With little time remaining before Congress adjourns for the fall, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has said he will not schedule a debate and vote on welfare until both sides reach agreement on the amount of time for debate and the number of amendments to be considered.
There was bitter disagreement over welfare policy in 1996, when Congress passed legislation that ended the six-decade guarantee of aid to the poor, allowed states to cut people off the rolls at will and limited families to five years of benefits. Today, the changes being considered are considerably more modest, though Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided.
The major issues include how many hours people on welfare should be required to work and how much money to spend on child care. Democrats seem willing to go along with new money to promote marriage, though some want to let states use it for other activities if they choose.
