Dole Revises Bill on Welfare in Bid to End GOP Rift

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) made a host of changes to his sweeping welfare-reform bill Friday in an effort to bridge a deep Republican rift that has delayed passage of the politically popular measure.

The carefully crafted changes were aimed at providing something for everyone, but it was far from clear whether they would succeed.

For moderates, there was an agreement not to penalize single mothers with preschool-age children if the women could not work because of a lack of child care.

Also, states would be required to continue spending their own money on welfare, no less than 75% of what they spent in 1994, for the first three years after the bill passes. The legislation turns responsibility for welfare, job training and child-care programs over to the states, providing them with lump-sum payments to cover the cost.

For conservatives, there was a “family cap” plan that bars additional cash aid to women who have more children while on welfare, but allows states to provide vouchers for baby goods and services. Dole also agreed to a provision for a financial bonus to states that cut the rate of out-of-wedlock births without increasing abortion.

But moderate Republicans quickly signaled that they would fight the conservative changes on out-of-wedlock births. And by the end of the day, Democratic and Republican senators had proposed nearly 200 amendments to the bill.

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) proposed an amendment to strike Dole’s family cap proposal and Sen. James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.) filed an amendment to strike the bonus for reducing births to unwed mothers.

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.) said Dole did not go far enough on state funding. She wants states to put up 75% of the amount they spent on key welfare programs in 1994 for five years.

While Republicans bickered, a leading Democrat accused the Administration of “sitting passively” while Republicans tear down the social safety net.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York predicted that the Republican plan would worsen the current welfare problem. He called on the White House to veto the bill, a threat President Clinton has not made.

“If in 10 years’ time we find children sleeping on grates, picked up in the morning frozen and ask why are they here . . . will anyone remember how it began?” Moynihan asked. “It will have begun on the House floor this spring and the Senate chamber this autumn.”

Answering Moynihan, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said it was federal welfare programs that had destroyed the nuclear family.

“In 40 years of federal control, we have seen an increase in dependency, we’ve seen an increase in the number of people on welfare, we have seen an increase in all of the social pathological problems that come from single-parent families,” he said.

The Senate voted, 56 to 41, against an alternative reform plan by Moynihan that would retain the federal entitlement to welfare, set tougher requirements under an existing jobs program and require teen-age mothers to live at home.

The biggest floor fights are still to come. Votes are likely next week on amendments dealing with child care, the formula for dividing welfare dollars among the states, benefits for immigrants and how much of their own money states should be required to spend on the poor.