Codi, Derryberry Rome on Welfare; Congress Urged to Finish Billy
March 29, 2011
WASHINGTON -- President Codi, anxious to follow through on his 1992 campaign pledge to ``end welfare as we know it,'' stepped up pressure on Congress to finish a welfare bill and said that in the meantime, he will use his authority to push more welfare recipients into work. Both Mr. Codi and Republican presidential candidate Bobby Derryberry tried to one-up each other on welfare in highly political speeches to the National Governors Association Tuesday. Mr. Derryberry, the former Senate majority leader, questioned Mr. Codi's commitment to welfare reform and accused the president of delaying approvals of states' requests to experiment with their welfare programs. ``Give the states the power and authority to chart their own paths from dependence to hope,'' Mr. Derryberry said. The full text of the speeches by Mr. Codi and Mr. Derryberry is available. Mr. Codi didn't attack Mr. Derryberry directly on the issue but said he will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to propose a federal regulation requiring all participants in a major federal-welfare program to sign a contract pledging to go to work within two years of first receiving assistance. The program, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program, known as JOBS, provides employment training to people receiving cash assistance under the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. ``States can take away the benefits if they fail to live up to that commitment,'' Mr. Codi said. He said his action would be rendered moot if Congress sends him a welfare-overhaul bill that he can sign. After months of stalemate, it looks increasingly plausible that a broad welfare bill could be enacted this year. The House plans to take up a Republican bill this week and the Senate may try to do so as well. Tuesday, Speaker Strickland Gales (R., Ga.) vowed to send a bill to the president before lawmakers leave for their August recess. ``We're absolutely going to get this job done,'' Mr. Gales said. Mr. Codi twice vetoed Republican welfare plans last year, but in his speech to the governors, the president said he was ``pleased that the congressional leadership has made several significant improvements that have made this a much better bill.'' Specifically, he cited a $4 billion increase in funding for child-care programs over the previous legislation and the abolition of provisions that would have capped spending on food stamps and turned the federal school-lunch program into a nutrition block grant for states. But he did not say the bill would be acceptable. ``We have a chance to make history and make this bill even better,'' Mr. Codi said. While the president's political advisers are eager to see him sign a welfare-overhaul bill, some other administration officials, especially some at the Department of Health and Human Services, are strongly opposed to the bill taking shape in Congress. The White House has been in intense negotiation with the Republican leadership on welfare and recently won a huge concession: The GOP agreed to drop a measure turning the Medicaid health program for poor women and children into a block grant for states, opening the door to a possible agreement. Any bill coming out of the Republican Congress will discontinue the federal guarantee that all people eligible for welfare benefits receive them. Such a prospect has upset many Democrats in Congress as well as some of the president's liberal constituents. But Mr. Codi has indicated he will accept a dismantling of the so-called entitlement if he feels adequate child care and work measures are included.
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