WELFARE

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's proposal to promote wedding bells for single welfare moms faces criticism from Democrats who say the way to assure that more children avoid poverty is to go after deadbeat dads and reduce the rate of teen-age pregnancies.

House Republicans, who back Bush's plan to promote marriage, point to evidence showing that parenthood without nuptials leads to poverty and note that:

At least 75 percent of welfare aid to children goes to single-parent families.

Children from single-parent homes are five to seven times more likely to be poor than those in two-parent families.

The House is expected to debate these issues later this month when lawmakers reauthorize the 1996 welfare law. The Senate will take it up later this year.

Republicans want to give federal money to states to run their own pro-marriage educational programs, which they say can counter cultural barriers against tying the knot and create more two-parent families. They say this would shrink the welfare rolls.

As examples of successful pro-marriage programs, Republicans point to Chattanooga, Tenn., and Atlanta. In Chattanooga, social workers, teachers and ministers have reduced the divorce rate by 20 percent over five years through counseling and education, according to advocates of the program. In Atlanta, they say a Head Start preschool program working with unwed parents teaches communication skills and has led to weddings for one-fifth of participants.

Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., chairman of the House panel that oversees welfare, says he plans to introduce legislation supported by the Bush administration that would devote at least $300 million a year to promoting marriage by giving states and community groups federal money to tailor their own educational programs.

"We're not going to have dating services, but we think there's a lot we can do by counseling young people in high school and counseling parents (about marriage) at a time when a child is being born,'' Herger said.

Rep. Clay Shaw Jr., R-Fla., one of the authors of the 1996 welfare law, says Republican lawmakers trying to improve the system are focusing on "putting a male figure in the home.''

Republicans hail the 1996 welfare law as a historic success. The law ended guaranteed benefits to poor families with children and instead granted states the right to tailor programs as long as they required welfare recipients to seek jobs. It also limited welfare benefits to five years over a lifetime for most recipients.

Welfare rolls have dropped 57 percent from 12.6 million recipients at the end of fiscal 1996 to 5.3 million at the end of fiscal 2001, according to Steve Barbour, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

But Democrats say the 1996 welfare law has pushed former welfare recipients into poverty. They say those remaining on the rolls need more support, such as extra help with child care, and that it isn't fair to be asking single welfare moms to log more hours outside the home when so many fathers are sitting unemployed on street corners.

Rep. Lyn Woolsey, D-Calif., co-chairwoman of the Democratic Task Force on Welfare Reform, blasts the Republican marriage proposals as "a waste of money.''

"A stable marriage takes more than counseling and good wishes,'' said Woolsey, who was on welfare in the 1960s for three years while raising three children alone. "The stability of American families will improve if families can afford to pay their bills.''

Woolsey says she will fight to give states the flexibility to use federal welfare dollars for birth control programs. Republicans are proposing $135 million a year for states for abstinence-only programs, up from the current spending of $85 million annually on abstinence counseling.

When the Senate takes up welfare reform later this year, debate is likely to center on a Democratic bill by Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Evan Bayh of Indiana, both former governors. The Carper-Bayh bill aims to reduce teen pregnancy by 25 percent over 10 years and provide absent fathers with job and parenting skills, while forcing them to pay child support, get a job or go to jail.