Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 7, 1995                   TAG: 9503070116
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOP LAWMAKER SAYS HER PARTY IS TOO SOFT ON DEADBEAT DADS

The House's senior Republican woman criticized the GOP's sweeping welfare reform legislation Monday for failing to take away the driver's licenses of parents who refuse to pay child support.

``If we mean it about establishing parental responsibility, that means male responsibility, paternal responsibility. We can't only demand it of women and children. We have to demand accountability of men,'' said Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J.

Critics of the GOP's blueprint, which could go to the House floor for a vote as early as next week, say it punishes women and children by cutting their welfare benefits while going easy on men, who account for the vast majority of parents who fail to pay child support.

Three committees are writing the legislation. When completed, it will tighten the rules for food stamp recipients, return many welfare and nutrition programs to the states, and reform a child-support system that delivers a check to just one-fifth of all families who seek help.

The House Ways and Means Committee finished its work Friday, after refusing to include a requirement that states yank the driver's, recreational and professional licenses of a deadbeat parent.

Some lawmakers said they opposed such a mandate on the states. But Roukema, who is not on the committee, noted that the bill includes other mandates, such as a ban on cash aid to unmarried teen-age mothers and a five-year time limit.

``Taking licenses away from deadbeats is one of the simplest, most effective and easy-to-understand tools available to us,'' Roukema said. ``It has produced remarkable results in the states where it has been tried. Threaten to take away a deadbeat's ability to drive a car, and you'll be surprised how fast he pays up. We need this program nationally.''

Roukema said she is also concerned that the legislation lacks provisions establishing criminal penalties for willful evasion of child support.

The House Agriculture Committee, meanwhile, takes up its piece of the legislation Tuesday. The committee's plan would cut food stamp spending by $16 billion over five years by tightening the rules and curbing automatic increases in benefits.

The Ways and Means Committee legislation, which deals mainly with foster care, aid to disabled children and cash assistance, cuts welfare spending by another $35 billion. A final committee vote on the measure is planned this week.

``This is the first step towards a balanced budget,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told a news conference Monday. GOP Govs. George Allen of Virginia and William Weld of Massachusetts were at his side.

``It's a first step towards breaking out of the welfare trap,'' he said. ``It's a first step towards finding local experiments with local control to help those of our children who are currently trapped in poverty and ignorance.''