Prometheus 6

The Welfare Merry-Go-Round: Part 2
The states prepare for Bush's new welfare push
By MATTHEW COOPER
Given the other issues at hand, you might not think welfare reform would be a hot one for President Bush. But he has long wanted to toughen the 1996 law that led to a dramatic reduction in welfare rolls and imposed work requirements on many recipients ? and he is now a step closer. Voting along party lines, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill last week that would replace the expired 1996 law with a stricter set of rules. The measure would raise the number of hours that welfare recipients must work or be enrolled in training or course work. It would gradually require that 70% of recipients be working or preparing to work, up from 50% today. And it would provide up to $1.5 billion for activities that promote marriage, such as couples counseling.

Though toughening the law has bipartisan support in Washington, cash-strapped states are less sanguine. The Senate committee's bill includes about $1 billion to help struggling states pay for child care, but that could be as much as $500 million short of what they need, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Twenty-three states have backlogs of parents who qualify for child-care funds but can't get them, according to a General Accounting Office report.