New Coalition Vows Fight Over Welfare Law

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

New Coalition Vows Fight Over Welfare Law

by Laura Meckler
November 14, 2001
Associated Press

WASHINGTON ** A coalition of liberals is vowing to fight
for changes in federal welfare policy when the landmark
overhaul is renewed next year. Kicking off their
campaign, they argue that the popular changes aren't
working as well as most Americans think.

The newly formed National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support
<http://www.nationalcampaign.org/>, made up of some 1,000 groups, argues that
the 1996 welfare law has left the nation with a tattered safety net that will
be unable to support needy Americans if the economic slump deepens.

The 1996 law ended the six-decade federal guarantee of
cash benefits to the poor, limited welfare to five years
and imposed strict work requirements. The results were
dramatic: Caseloads fell by nearly 60 percent, as
welfare recipients were lured into jobs by the strong
economy or pushed off the rolls by tough new rules.

At the same time, poverty rates have not fallen as far
as welfare rolls, with many people leaving welfare for
jobs that don't pay enough to reach the poverty line.

The new group, which is launching its campaign
Wednesday, is looking for a host of changes. Among them:
Allowing people on welfare to satisfy work requirements
by participating in education or training, stopping the
clock on the five-year time limit if someone is working
and restoring welfare, food stamp, health and disability
benefits to legal immigrants.

Politically, it hopes to be more successful that
liberals were in 1996, when President Clinton signed the
GOP-drafted bill, said Deepak Bhargava, director of the
campaign.

"There was a state of shock that these massive changes
were being contemplated and disbelief that they could
occur under a Democratic president's watch," he said.
"Now people are very clear about the stakes and have
mobilized."

Conservatives have a much different agenda for next
year's welfare debate. Most of them are happy with the
work requirements, but many hope to put a stronger
emphasis on marriage and reducing the number of children
born to single parents.

The liberal group, with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
on hand, is launching its campaign by arguing that many
workers who could lose their jobs in an economic
downturn will not have access to unemployment insurance,
which does not cover many part-time jobs or workers
without long job histories.

It released research that suggested the number of people
in poverty would increase by more than 3.3 million if
the unemployment rate rises by two percentage points.

The group's research also found that more than 120,000
families have had their welfare benefits reduced or
eliminated because of welfare time limits, a finding
similar to that of an Associated Press survey last
summer.

And it found that more than 116,000 poor immigrant
families have incomes that are low enough to qualify for
welfare or food stamps, but they do not qualify because
they came to the country after August 1996, when the
welfare law was signed.

© 2001 The Associated Press