Study Says Reform Bill Hurts Kids Institute Says Measure Will Put 1.1 Million Children Into Poverty
The Urban Institute has estimated that the welfare legislation before Congress would increase the number of children in poverty by 1.1 million, or 12 percent, according to a study released Thursday night.
The analysis of the legislation also estimates that families on welfare would lose, on average, about $1,000 a year once the bill is fully implemented, including assistance from food stamps. More than a fifth of American families with children would be affected by the legislation, the research organization reported.
The analysis comes as Congress is in the final days of work on the measure, which would dramatically change the nation’s welfare system. The legislation, approved in slightly different forms by the House and Senate over the past week, would end the six-decade-old guarantee that any poor, eligible person can receive aid from the federal government.
Instead, welfare programs would be turned over to the states, which would receive annual, capped payments. Adult recipients would be expected to work and benefits would be limited to five years, with some exceptions.
A House-Senate conference committee began negotiating the final version of the legislation Thursday, and GOP leaders have vowed to send a bill to President Clinton before the end of next week. Clinton has not indicated whether he will sign it.
The Urban Institute numbers could figure prominently in arguments of advocates for the poor and others lobbying the White House to veto the bill. Last year, Clinton vetoed welfare legislation after a similar report by the Urban Institute estimated it would increase by 1.5 million the number of children in poverty.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., urged the Clinton administration to produce such a report of its own. Jacob J. Lew, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration had not conducted an analysis, citing the uncertainties involved in developing poverty estimates.
“Cash income alone does not fully reflect the value of work in ending the cycle of poverty,” Lew wrote Moynihan. “Children growing up in homes and communities where there is work will be far better off over the long run than children growing up in homes and communities where there is only welfare - even though a family on welfare might look better off in a poverty analysis.”
Clinton has indicated his desire to sign welfare legislation, but he said the current bill goes too far in cutting benefits to legal immigrants who have not become citizens and not far enough in protecting children whose parents lose assistance.