Welfare Reform Advances Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Two Pieces Of Legislation

The first two pieces of Idaho’s welfare reform package sailed through the Senate on Friday, one on a unanimous vote and the other with just three dissenters.

The bills, which now go to the House, would:

Allow the state to pay workers’ compensation insurance for welfare recipients getting unpaid on-the-job training or work experience. That will allow for a major provision of the welfare reform plan: that all recipients will work or learn basic job skills in exchange for their benefits,

Make grandparents on both sides financially responsible for their minor children’s babies.

The grandparent bill drew the most debate. Sen. Laird Noh, R-Kimberly, worried that its intent could be twisted.

Teens, “particularly if they’re a little crossways with their parents,” might intentionally have babies knowing that their parents will have to pay, he said.

But supporters discounted the idea.

The welfare reform plan, in most cases, would require teen parents to live with their own parents to receive benefits. So welfare no longer would provide a ticket out of the home for teens.

In earlier committee hearings on the bill, Judy Brooks, state welfare administrator, said a teen mom’s parents already are considered responsible for their grandchild to some extent. The bill expands that responsibility to the parents of the teen dad as well.

“We are not dictating living situations with this law,” Sen. Grant Ipsen, R-Boise, told the Senate. “We are assigning responsibility.”

Sen. Tim Tucker, D-Porthill, joined two fellow Democrats in opposing the bill.

“I don’t think putting more pressure on the family is going to be beneficial,” he said after the vote. “I don’t think the savings are worth the pressure that may pop up somewhere else.”

As those two bills head to the House, two more pieces of the welfare reform package cleared a Senate committee on Friday and are headed for Senate votes.

They would:

Direct the state Department of Health and Welfare to make rules to implement the 44-point welfare reform plan.

Make it easier for parents to establish a child’s paternity. Parents could sign a form identifying the child’s father. After six months, the document would be considered conclusive proof of paternity.

But this method of determining paternity should be used only if there is no question about who a child’s father is, said Brooks. “If there is a dispute, then don’t do this.”

Undisputed paternity cases now must go to court, which is costly and time-consuming.

Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, cast the only vote against the bill because he said he objected to a provision stating there would be no jury trial in those cases.

Brooks said, “It’s a little bit difficult for paternity to be determined by a jury.”

Boatright responded, “I just oppose taking away rights.”

The rules bill won the committee’s unanimous support.

Brooks said it’s the key to the governor’s welfare reform plan. Many of the plan’s provisions don’t require new legislation and can be done through agency rules. Among them: the controversial two-year limit on cash benefits.

The welfare reform plan is designed to convert Idaho’s welfare system into a short-term training program that pushes welfare parents toward self-sufficiency. It would require all recipients, including new moms, to work. The state would provide child care; child-support enforcement would be stepped up to help cover the cost.

Two other bills already have cleared the Senate committee and are awaiting votes of the full Senate. They would suspend parents’ licenses if they don’t pay child support or comply with visitation orders, and punish employers or others who help child support scofflaws hide their assets or wages.

The final piece of the legislative package is a bill that makes child support or visitation scofflaws ineligible to hold public office.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SUNDAY Idaho lawmakers now are debating sweeping reform in the state’s welfare system. Sunday’s Idaho Spokesman-Review examines these reforms and profiles three families whose lives will be changed.