Family Cap

It's a simple idea that's had a sweeping impact on welfare reform: Remove the financial incentive and welfare mothers won't have more children.It began in 1992 when New Jersey enacted a "family cap" law barring additional payments to welfare mothers who have children 10 or more months after they apply for welfare.Based on reports of the law's success, several states -- including Maryland -- implemented similar laws. The family cap also became an important part of the congressional push for welfare reform.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Helen Delich Bentley said yesterday that she would cut off welfare benefits to recipients convicted of a felony or any crime involving illicit drugs.Unveiling a welfare reform plan six days before the primary election, Mrs. Bentley also would deny increased benefits to mothers who have additional children while on the welfare rolls and would require recipients to go to work after receiving cash benefits for two years.Both those elements are similar to proposals pushed by Democratic Gov. William Donald Schaefer, to whom Mrs. Bentley gave credit, and previously espoused by her closest GOP rival, state Del. Ellen R. Sauerbrey.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening joined state legislative leaders yesterday to support a pilot welfare reform program that they said would help move people from dependence to work and keep poor families together.The program, which is pending before the General Assembly, would require some parents to find a job, perform community service or enroll in a job training and placement program within three months of going on the welfare rolls.To encourage families to stay together, the program would also allow households to continue to receive welfare payments even if the father worked more than 100 hours in one month.

Family CapI must confess to disbelief when I read your editorial, "Schaefer's Family Cap" (Feb. 14).You state that advocates for the poor who object to the family cap -- a policy recommendation to deny a welfare grant increment of about $80 to a child born into a welfare family -- should go along with the recommendation, simply because the political reality of the issue gives it widespread public support.You also state the family cap policy is symbolic.While most of us expect elected officials to reflect their constituents' beliefs, we also should expect that they will do their best to educate us about the effects of their policy decisions.

At midnight the 1994 session of the Maryland General Assembly will be history, and so will efforts to reform welfare, speed up death penalty appeals and raise cigarette taxes if lawmakers don't hurry.They must strike a compromise on those issues today or their work on them during the last 89 days will amount to nothing.The only certainty on the final day of a legislative session is uncertainty. Any bill awaiting action is vulnerable to a last-minute power play, a Senate filibuster, pressure from lobbyists or just plain lack of time.

At midnight the 1994 session of the Maryland General Assembly will be history, and so will efforts to reform welfare, speed up death penalty appeals and raise cigarette taxes if lawmakers don't hurry.They must strike a compromise on those issues today or their work on them during the past 89 days will amount to nothing.The only certainty on the final day of a legislative session is uncertainty. Any bill awaiting action is vulnerable to a last-minute power play, a Senate filibuster, pressure from lobbyists or just plain lack of time.

Geraldine Aronin, author of a letter to the editor published yesterday, was incorrectly identified. She is legislative affairs officer of the Maryland Chapter, National Association of Social Workers, and a former deputy secretary of the state Department of Human Resources.The Sun regrets the error.Problems of Family Cap ProposalI am writing in response to the Feb. 20 article, "A case for the family cap," by Carolyn Colvin, Maryland secretary of human resources.The Maryland Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, representing over 3,600 social workers statewide, strongly opposes the family cap, which will deny public assistance for any child born 10 months after the parent receives assistance.

By a resounding 30-17 margin, the Maryland Senate fell in step behind its female members yesterday and agreed to lift restrictions on state funding of abortions for poor women.The restrictions, in one form or another, date back some 15 years. The state now pays for abortions only when a woman is the victim of rape or incest or faces serious physical or mental health problems by continuing the pregnancy.An amendment allowing the use of state Medicaid funds to terminate pregnancies was tacked onto the Schaefer administration's welfare reform bill, which then received preliminary approval on a voice vote.

Rude SenatorsI recently attended a hearing in Annapolis before the Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee, and I must say that I was appalled by the rude behavior of some of the senators sitting on the committee.In particular, Sen. Michael Collins, D-Baltimore County, continually talked the entire time while testimony was being presented.It may be a political strategy (albeit a discourteous one) to talk while your legislative adversaries are testifying. To carry on conversation while a constituent is testifying, however, is inexcusable.