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By Deborah Carl
LDS Representative Herger Supporting Measure to Promote Marriage
WASHINGTON, DC -- The number of single-parent families on welfare
continues to grow in spite of welfare reform. The 1996 welfare law
called for promoting marriage and reducing illegitimate births, but
little has been done. Now the Bush administration and members of
Congress, including California Representative Wally Herger, an LDS
Church member, are considering mandatory programs to promote marriage
among the poor.
Social conservatives are expected to earmark millions of dollars for
marriage education and for cash bonuses to single mothers who marry
the child's father. They also will require states to end some income
tests that discourage parents from getting married.
"If we are serious about restoring marriage, public policy will have
to do more than simply strive toward marriage neutrality, by removing
financial disincentives for marriage," Wade Horn, President Bush's
nominee for assistant secretary of family support at the Department
of Health and Human Services, wrote in a recent article. "It needs to
show that it values marriage by rewarding those who choose it."
Representative Wally Herger, the California Republican who chairs a
House Ways and Means subcommittee with jurisdiction over renewing
welfare funds, is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints and a father of eight. He said in a statement that
before Congress extends the $16.5 billion Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families bloc grant, he wants to consider "additional
approaches, or programmatic changes, that may hold promise in better
promoting marriage and family formation and discouraging
illegitimacy."
While most agree that two-parent households help lift children out of
poverty, many fear the marriage incentives will take needed funds
from single-family households. "Wade Horn wants the government to
discriminate against families that don't meet his ideal," said Tim
Casey, a lawyer for the NOW fund. "In benefit programs where there is
not enough for everybody, single-parent families would go to the back
of the line." Others oppose having the government involved in
marriage which they consider a challenging and personal commitment.
Source:
Marriage incentives for poor considered
Boston Globe 22May01 T2
By Mary Leonard: Globe Staff
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