Thursday, May 30, 1996

Bush Unveils New Personal Responsibility Pact For Welfare Recipients

By TERRI LANGFORD
Associated Press

HOUSTON - Starting this weekend, welfare recipients in Texas must agree to move off the dole and into the workplace or risk losing some of their monthly benefits.

Beginning Saturday, all Texas parents or guardians receiving Aid To Families with Dependent Children must promise to sign a personal responsibility agreement with the state that says they will enroll in a job training program.

"It is a statement of principle in our state," said Gov. George W. Bush, who unveiled the program in Houston on Wednesday. "It now says that you're responsible."

The pact marks a dramatic step for Texas in trying to trying to pare the welfare rolls, a move promised during Bush's campaign.

"There is a new attitude that says that we're going to do do everything in our power to get you off of public assistance," said Bush, while visiting a job training program for women at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. "We're not going to be mean about it. We're not going to be coldhearted about it, but that's the goal.

"The goal is: fewer people on welfare."

Bush unveiled the program while visiting the St. Luke's program, in which welfare mothers are trained to work at the hospital. Bush called the private-business initiative a unique one that he hopes other Texas businesses emulate.

"We're not asking, we're demanding that people be responsible," Bush said.

Alma Hollins, 41 and a mother of three, received food stamps for about nine months before enrolling into the program. The workforce, she says, is the only way to go.

"When you sign up ... go in with a positive attitude, because I promise it works," Hollins said.
Last year in Texas, 746,347 people received AFDC payments totaling $42 million. An average AFDC payment for a mother and two children is $188 a month.

However, most AFDC families receive Medicaid and food-stamp assistance that pushes the monthly taxpayer subsidy to an average of more than $800 a month.

The pact requires adult AFDC recipients to accept these responsibilities:
-Enroll in a job program.
-Cooperate with child-support requirements to establish paternity and help obtain child support for children in each household.
-Not voluntarily quit a job without good cause.
-Ensure that your children get medical and dental checkups and are immunized properly.
-Ensure that each child receiving AFDC stays in school unless the child has a high-school diploma or a general-equivalency diploma.
-Attend parenting classes if asked to do so.
-Remain drug free.

Recipients who are unable to work because of physical ailments will not be required to enroll in a job program. However, those parents or guardians who fail to sign or comply with the program will have their individual benefits suspended.

Bush defended the tactic, brushing aside criticism that revoking benefits from an irresponsible mother could lead that mother to abuse the children's monthly aid check.

"A mother who abuses her children is going to do so. An AFDC payment is not going to be a trigger," Bush said. "That's a mental problem, not a financial problem."

AFDC recipients do not have to undergo drug testing. But if a state case worker suspects an AFDC parent of drug abuse, the parent's portion of the benefit will be suspended.

Last year in Austin, lawmakers approved numerous changes to welfare in Texas, including up to a three-year limit on benefits and a requirement that mothers identify the fathers of children receiving assistance.

Many of the changes required federal approval before taking effect. That approval came in March from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.