Senate Won’t Budge On Strict Welfare Rules

The Senate Friday defeated two Democratic amendments that would have softened the impact of welfare legislation on children and immigrants, rejecting an opportunity to make the bill more acceptable to President Clinton.

The voting heightens the political dilemma faced by the White House, which had counted on the Senate to modify what the administration considers the most objectionable provisions of a welfare bill approved by the House Thursday.

The legislation would dramatically alter the nation’s welfare system, ending the 6-decade-old guarantee that assures assistance to the eligible poor, and turning over control of public assistance programs to the states. The Senate is expected to approve the measure next week.

The House legislation, adopted largely along party lines on a vote of 256-170, also failed to answer complaints raised by Clinton, who has objected to “deep cuts” in the food stamp program, denial of aid to most legal immigrants and a ban on vouchers to help purchase services for children whose parents have been cut off welfare.

The amendments rejected by the Senate would have restored assistance to legal immigrants and provided vouchers to children.

Presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos said Friday that the administration still hopes a bill will emerge from a joint House-Senate conference committee that Clinton can sign, but indicated the White House has no plans to offer clear guidelines on how to make the bill acceptable.

Stephanopoulos repeated the White House position that Clinton will not sign “a bad bill” and that Congress will have to produce something that “meets the president’s principles.” Only 30 Democrats voted for the House bill and Senate Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle warned Friday the same lack of Democratic support would be true in the Senate if amendments are not added to protect children. Without such changes, he said, “my expectation is that a large percentage, perhaps almost all Democrats, will vote against it.”

Democratic opposition to the bill would further complicate matters for Clinton, who has made it clear that he wants to sign a welfare bill before the election. That would allow him to meet his 1992 campaign pledge to “end welfare as we know it” and satisfy widespread sentiments evident in polls showing that a majority of voters want the system changed.

On the other hand Clinton has been stalked by liberal Democrats who have warned him at every turn that the GOP proposals would harm children and result in greater poverty. The measure requires welfare recipients to work, limits benefits to five years and allows states to deny aid to unmarried teen mothers.

Clinton vetoed welfare legislation twice last year, and Republicans have been using those vetoes to attack the president.