Bush to stake moderate pose on welfare issue

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will ask Congress to set aside at least $100 million for experimental programs aimed at getting single welfare mothers to marry, but is resisting conservative pressure to require that states push marriage in their welfare programs.

Staking a moderate position on welfare, the Bush administration is also rejecting arguments for cutting overall welfare funding, echoing liberals who say there is still much to do despite a massive drop in the welfare rolls.

Beyond that, the administration is considering relaxing the strict work rules adopted in 1996 to allow for limited education and training.

And officials are contemplating new money for experiments aimed at helping former recipients, most of whom are still in poverty, get higher-paying jobs.

For the most part, Bush and his advisers believe the landmark welfare overhaul adopted in 1996 is working well, and the administration wants to make changes only on the margin when Congress renews the law this year. "I want to make sure we take the basic system that we have, which is working, and improve upon that so that people that are working and have left welfare have got better opportunities to advance and move up the economic ladder into self-sufficiency," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who has been a national welfare leader since Wisconsin, where he was governor, pioneered some of the boldest changes.

Marriage issue

Some of the administration's plan will be described in the budget Bush submits to Congress on Feb. 4. Other pieces will be rolled out as debate gears up over how to change the 1996 law.

But so far, the administration is rejecting the most sweeping proposals from both liberals and conservatives, according to three administration officials, who described the administration's planning.

Take the sensitive issue of marriage, and how -- or whether -- to get single moms on welfare to marry the fathers of their children.

Many conservatives made this their top priority, arguing that two-parent families are better for children and key to escaping poverty.

Governors, who want as much freedom as possible in spending welfare money, detest this sort of mandate, and aides note that Bush and Thompson are both former governors.

So the Bush plan will offer a pot of money -- at least $100 million each year, according to one official -- for experiments aimed at getting poor people to marry.