WASHINGTON – President Bush yesterday called for new welfare reforms to make more people work – and work longer – for their benefits.
“We ended welfare as we’ve known it, yet this is not a post-poverty America,” Bush said.
“Child poverty is still too high. Too many families are strained and fragile and broken. Too many Americans have not found work and the purpose it brings.”
Welfare rolls dropped nearly 60 percent and child poverty is at its lowest in decades, since the landmark 1996 reform – which required work and put a five-year limit on benefits – and now Congress must renew the program.
Bush wants 70 percent of welfare recipients to work by 2007 and says they should be required to work 40 hours – a full week – instead of the current 30, although 16 hours can go for training.
Some liberal critics contend that’s ridiculous because there are fewer jobs in a troubled post-9/11 economy – “welfare in Wonderland,” fumed the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support.
But a senior administration official briefing reporters noted that despite the past year’s economic problems, welfare rolls have continued to drop.
That’s also true in New York City, said Human Resources Administration spokesman David Neustadt, adding that people who lost jobs due to 9/11 are eligible for unemployment and the city has conducted employment fairs.
Under the 1996 law, new legal immigrants can’t get food stamps or SSI benefits until they become citizens. Bush wants to make legal aliens eligible for food stamps, but not SSI, after five years’ residence.
Bush also wants states to pass along $280 million in child support to families – rather than keeping it to make up for past welfare support.
Despite the 60 percent drop in welfare rolls, Bush wants to increase funding by more than $3 billion over the next five years, so there’s money for items like day care – and to help states hit hard by recession.
Initial reaction from New York lawmakers was cautious – Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton both said they need to study it.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WELFARE PLAN:
* Recipients must work 40 hours per week.
* 70 percent of recipients working by 2007.
* Legal immigrants eligible for food stamps after five years in U.S.
* $135M for abstinence education.
* $300M to encourage marriage.