From: clarinews@clarinet.com (THOMAS FERRARO)
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Subject: Bush offers model of welfare reform
Keywords: usa federal, government, politics, family matters, social issues,
	poor, special interest
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 11:42:31 PDT
ACategory: washington
Slugword: bush-welfare
Priority: regular
Format: regular
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	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- President Bush cleared the way Friday for
Wisconsin to reduce welfare payments to unwed mothers, and urged other
states to consider similar work- and family-incentive welfare reforms.
	On an election-year drive to reform government, Bush granted
Wisconsin a waiver from federal welfare regulations so it could promptly
enact its so-called bridefare initiative.
	The plan, which will be implemented as a three-year pilot project,
would partially cap benefits for single mothers with more than one
child, but increase payments if she married.
	There are also requirements for parents receiving additional benefits
to attend parenting and sex education classes, as well as provisions
that would make it more financially attractive for them to get a job.
	``It'll be a good example for the rest of the country,'' Bush said
during a picture-taking session in the Oval Office with Wisconsin Gov.
Tommy Thompson and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan.
	Asked if he endorsed penalizing welfare mothers with more than one
child, Bush said: ``I'm noting going into it (the plan) point by point.''
	``I'm very interested in the innovation of the Wisconsin plan,'' he
said. ``I want to see how it works. The governor can defend ... any
aspect of his plan if he wants.''
	Thompson, at a news conference afterwards, said the plan would help
working welfare mothers. He explained it would let them keep a larger
portion of their payments than currently allowed.
	``What we are doing is giving them the initiative to work,'' said
Thompson. ``It will help the family.''
	Bush has long promised to speed up waivers for state efforts to
revise welfare programs. Wisconsin, which requested a waiver just four
weeks ago, became the first to obtain one.
	The president said he was not prepared to offer any proposed federal
welfare reforms, but encouraged states to seek their own changes and to
examine the Wisconsin plan for possible assistance.
	``States often act as laboratories for innovation,'' Bush said during
a picture-taking session in the Oval Office with Wisconsin Gov. Tommy
Thompson and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan.
	The president, who recently launched a campaign to reform government
and shakeup Washington, said, ``Nowhere is the need (for reform) more
apparent than in our nation's welfare system.''
	``Our current system allows welfare to be a way of life,'' he said. 
``We must try new ways to get welfare to yield work.''
	At a news conference, Thompson and Sullivan said Wisconsin's plan may
not be suited for all states, but that it addresses the need for change
that other states should seek.
	``I hope other states will take notice and send in their waiver
requests,'' said Sullivan.
	Thompson's Parental and Family Responsibility Initiative applies to
first-time teenage mothers in the federal Aid to Families with Dependent
Children programs in Milwaukee and three soon-to-be named Wisconsin
counties.
	Under it:
	--AFDC benefits will be partially capped. Currently, a mother with one
child receives $440 per month, with two children $517, with three
children $617, and so on. Under Wisconsin's program, a single mother
will get $440 when she has one child, but the increase for two children
would be reduced to $479. There would be no increase after that, no
matter how many children.
	--An AFDC mother with one child who marries could see her grant
increase by $77 a month to $517. But to qualify, the husband must
participate in a jobs program or complete school, and so does the mother
if the child is above age 2. They must also participate in sex education
and parenting classes.
	Thompson defended his program from criticism it would hurt mothers
and children, and told reporters, ``This will encourage people to stay
in high school ... and get a higher paying job.''
	``That is why this program has so much promise,'' he said.
	Bush said he would ``have more to say later'' on possible federal
welfare reform. ``But the thing for the moment is to speed up the relief
that is necessary so that the states can put into effect what they think
will work.''
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