Be Flexible on Welfare Rules

Congress should not ignore the lessons learned from the steep drop in the number of parents on public assistance since Washington made welfare a temporary benefit nearly six years ago. The federal government set reasonable goals and gave states the resources and flexibility needed to get millions of recipients, largely single mothers, off welfare and into jobs. As Congress prepares to reauthorize and amend the 1996 welfare reforms, the goal remains to put more recipients to work without harming their children.

A bipartisan compromise that sticks to those simple aims is brewing in the Senate Finance Committee. The measure, one of two Senate bills introduced, would protect the flexibility that states need while stiffening work rules, increasing day-care subsidies and restoring benefits to legal immigrants, many of whom live in California. The Senate is repeating the bipartisan cooperation that transformed the old, dead-end Aid to Families With Dependent Children into the more effective Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

More than half of the adults who were on welfare when welfare reform became law are off today. State welfare programs and a booming economy that created jobs at a record pace powered that exodus. The shrinking numbers prove that states know what they are doing.

The Bush administration, working through the Republican majority in the House, wants to toughen the rules without providing enough help for the states. More poor parents would have to go to work, and for longer hours. Child-care subsidies would not keep pace. The White House also would fund two dubious proposals for experiments promoting marriage and advocating sexual abstinence. A House bill approved Thursday would increase the work requirement from 30 to 40 hours a week. If some recipients couldn’t find jobs, which is all too likely in a stagnant economy, states would have to set up--and pay for--community work programs. The last thing governors need is another unfunded federal mandate, especially when 46 states face budget shortfalls.

The bill also would increase to 70% the percentage of people required to work while still receiving welfare. Some states can’t meet even the current 50% goal because many recipients lack skills that would make them attractive to employers. States need flexibility in defining “work” to allow some recipients to attend school, learn English or take training so they can get hired.

The White House proposed no new money for day care. Republican women members added $2 billion over five years to the House bill. A Senate bill counters with an $11-billion increase favored by Democrats. No child should become worse off because his mother left welfare and went to work.

Welfare reform is working. Congress should leave the states alone and let them do the job.