Bush on welfare: tougher work rules, more state control

President Bush Tuesday will unveil his welfare reform proposal, offering a plan that toughens work requirements for welfare recipients while seeking to streamline the program by providing the states more say over how it is implemented.

Bush is scheduled to outline his proposal at a Catholic church in Washington early this afternoon. White House advisers Monday evening began circulating a document describing the proposal, as well as quotes from Bush's planned speech.

"We will pursue four important goals to continue transforming welfare and the lives of those helped by it," Bush was planning to say. "We will strengthen work requirements; we will promote strong families; we will give states more flexibility in welfare spending; and we will show compassion to those in need by restoring nutrition benefits to legal immigrants."

Preparing for Tuesday's announcement, Bush met Monday afternoon with the nation's governors and explained the proposal. The governors expressed strong satisfaction with the commitment to allow states to improvise their own approaches to the program.

"We're going to hear about a welfare reform measure that, we think, is going to reflect very solidly governors' priorities," said Republican Michigan Gov. John Engler, chairman of the National Governors Association.

Bush will propose increasing to 70 percent by 2007 the proportion of welfare families required to work or participate in other activities "designed to help them achieve self- sufficiency," the White House document states. This would be achieved by raising the ratio by 5 percent per year from the current level of 50 percent.

The president will also propose that welfare recipients work 40 hours per week. However, "the plan makes special accommodations for parents with infants and individuals who need substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation or special work-related training," the document states.

Bush also wants to maintain support for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program at the prevailing level of $4.8 billion per year, according to the document. And he would provide incentives for states to increase payments to mothers and children out of funds collected to pay past-due child support in cases of families that have received welfare.

Bush would make "improvements" to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program--which provides $16.6 billion per year in block grants to the states--while maintaining the program's "basic structure" and the same overall funding level.

As announced in his budget, Bush wants to provide $300 million for programs that encourage marriage.

Engler, NGA Vice Chairman Gov. Paul Patton of Kentucky, a Democrat, and other governors spoke to reporters after meeting with Bush at the White House Monday. The 1996 welfare reform bill must be reauthorized this year.

Bush in his meeting with the governors called the 1996 bill a "really good piece of legislation."