MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Welfare reform supporters spent Wednesday trying to recover from a committee vote to defeat welfare reform.
With nine days left in the legislative session, a combination of Republicans and black Democrats blocked the bill from being passed out of the House budget committee Wednesday morning -- but for almost opposite reasons.
Black Democrats argued there was not enough in the bill to protect the lower income from the effects of welfare reform. House Republicans, however, have argued the bill goes too far in creating new welfare programs rather than cutting welfare spending.
The bill under consideration is the House version of a Senate-approved measure that specifies how Missouri would implement the new federal welfare reform law.
If the legislature does not approve a bill, the federal law will take effect and Missouri's welfare system will continue to operate under the waivers and state plan that have been in place since 1994, according to Social Services Department communications director Deb Hendricks.
The three black Democrats who voted against the bill met with the Senate sponsor, Sen. Joe Maxwell, D-Mexico, early Wednesday afternoon to try to reach a compromise. The bill had passed the Senate with bipartisan approval.
"We want to try to move forward," Maxwell said. "I think we reached some compromises that we can take to conference."
But Rep. Paula Carter, D-St. Louis, said she is waiting to see a new version of the bill before saying if she will change her vote.
Carter said she is opposed to the bill because it does not help women find and keep a job.
"There is no mandate for child care," she said. "How is a mother supposed to work if there is no place to take her children?"
Carter said she would like to see the legislature pass a bill that just implements the federal mandates and have a special committee review the issue over the summer.
"It seems to me they just want to get something past," she said. "As a mother, I am not ready to see this bill hit the floor."
Rep. Louis Ford, D-St. Louis, said the bill is too harsh on welfare recipients.
"There is no safety net," he said. "Where are we going to find all of these jobs?"
Rep. Russ Gunn, D-St. Louis, is the handler of the bill in the House and said he was upset his fellow black colleagues did not express their concerns earlier.
"They had a problem and didn't even come to the subcommittee or a hearing to talk about it," he said. "If we don't pass anything the federal reforms will take place without exemptions. That will hurt people throughout the state, including their constituents."
Republicans oppose the bill because they said it creates new entitlement programs.
"We will not support the expansion of a failed program," said newly-elected House Minority Floor Leader Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City. "The goal is personal responsibility."
Scott said Republicans are united in opposition to the bill and believe a bill that just implements the federal mandates would be enough.
"We intend to follow the direction the federal Congress started last year," he said. "We will not support new entitlements."
The Social Services would be left to implement the federal law, which contains several provisions that are more onerous than the proposed bill, including a lifetime ban from benefits for anyone convicted of a felony drug charge.
The law requires anyone who is receiving benefits to find a job within two years and imposes a five-year lifetime limit on benefits. The proposed bill would allow exemptions from the work requirement due to age or physical or mental disability.