Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Heeding warnings that a national welfare ``family cap'' would drive up abortions and punish poor families, the Senate derailed a conservative push Wednesday to deny additional cash payments to single mothers who have more children.
Twenty Republicans sided with every Democrat as the Senate approved an amendment by Sen. Pete Domenici, 66-34, to strip a family cap policy from the Republican blueprint to overhaul the nation's welfare programs. Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., voted for the amendment; Sen. John Warner, R-Va., voted against it.
Conservatives said the government, if it is ever going to bring down the rising rates of illegitimate births, must stop subsidizing the ``reckless, irresponsible'' behavior of single women who ask taxpayers to support their children.
But GOP moderates and Democrats said there was no evidence to suggest that slicing a small amount from a family's welfare check would discourage poor women from having children out of wedlock.
``If you believe that ... you believe in the tooth fairy. It just isn't going to happen,'' said Domenici, R-N.M., while warning that the family cap could increase abortions and add to the misery of the poor.
The family cap has divided Republicans as Bob Dole, the Senate's majority leader and top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, tries to win approval for historic legislation to turn responsibility for welfare over to the states, cut spending by $70 billion, and require recipients to go to work.
Dole has said he hopes to pass the bill, the centerpiece of the GOP's social agenda, by today. Several issues remain to be settled, among them demands that spending on child care be dramatically increased.
The White House applauded the passage of Domenici's amendment. ``It does by no means satisfy all the president's concerns,'' said White House spokesman Mike McCurry, ``but they are beginning to move this legislation in the direction of real reform of our welfare system ... We're going to continue to encourage them to improve this bill ... but we're getting closer.''
But conservative Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, one of Dole's rivals for the presidential nomination, said Wednesday's vote marks ``the unraveling of our consensus'' on welfare. ``It puts a lot of us in the position of trying to decide what we want to do.''
Conservatives lost again later in the day, when the Senate rejected, 76-24, an amendment to deny cash welfare to mothers under age 18.
by CNB