Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clinton showed lobbying skills on Hill as governor Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 15:30:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Clinton showed lobbying skills on Hill as governor \BY Julie Rovner \CR CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY When it comes to dealing with Congress, President-elect Bill Clinton is no blank slate. In 1987-88, Mr. Clinton often traveled to Capitol Hill, where he helped steer to enactment the Family Support Act, an overhaul of the nation's welfare system. While in Washington, Mr. Clinton was many things: a pest, a policy wonk, a cheerleader, a compromiser, a conciliator and an agenda-setter. Not surprisingly, candidate Clinton did not talk much during the campaign about his involvement with the welfare bill. This was not the year to brag about familiarity with Congress, and the Family Support Act's effectiveness has been limited by inadequate funding. Nevertheless, the law was an important first step, and most of those involved say that without Mr. Clinton, who spearheaded the lobbying campaign of the National Governors' Association, it would not have passed. Without the governors' efforts, "there would be no legislation," said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, New York Democrat, the lead congressional sponsor of the measure, in 1988. And without Mr. Clinton pushing them, the governors would have contributed considerably less. The welfare measure embodied much of what Mr. Clinton talked about on the stump this year. It required that states provide work, education and training programs to help welfare recipients become self-sufficient. And it increased federal efforts to get absent parents to pay child support. Significantly, Mr. Clinton forged successful working relationships during debate over the measure with many of the very people - primarily members of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees - who will have to move his economic stimulus and health bills in the coming year. Mr. Clinton was hardly the first to note the emerging consensus in 1986 between liberals and conservatives on the welfare issue. As liberals embraced the notion that able-bodied welfare recipients should be required to work, conservatives tentatively agreed that government ought to provide assistance in moving welfare recipients into permanent jobs. President Reagan called for welfare reform in his 1986 State of the Union address. During Mr. Clinton's year as chairman of the governors' association, the governors overwhelmingly approved a proposal that he helped devise just as Congress prepared to plunge headlong into the issue in 1987. Throughout consideration of the welfare bill, Mr. Clinton seemed virtually joined at the hip to Republican Gov. Michael N. Castle of Delaware, who will serve as a representative in the 103rd Congress. When conservative Republican governors, led by New Hampshire's John H. Sununu, balked at parts of the initial proposal, Mr. Castle helped bring them around. When the Senate bogged down in early 1988, Mr. Clinton enlisted the aid of Mr. Sununu and New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean. And during final negotiations, Mr. Clinton helped keep Reagan White House staff members on board. In his zeal to get a bill, Mr. Clinton sometimes seemed willing to jettison major parts of the proposal and abandon some underlying principles. To win over conservative governors, he agreed to make future increases in welfare benefits contingent on savings gained as people left the welfare rolls. And in a controversial compromise that threatened the loss of key liberal support, Mr. Clinton and Democratic sponsors agreed to Senate Republicans' demands that a certain percentage of welfare recipients be required to do unpaid work to continue receiving benefits. And when the House-Senate conference appeared to stall in 1988, Mr. Clinton kept up the pressure. House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, Illinois Democrat, reportedly said a key motivator for him to complete work was his desire to get Mr. Clinton to "stop chewing on my leg." * Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM