WASHINGTON – Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana are playing a leading role in crafting a bipartisan approach to providing federal assistance to working families.

The proposal, which is called the Strengthening Working Families Act, was introduced last week as an initiative of the broad-based Senate New Democrat Coalition, and has the support of Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the former vice presidential candidate. Snowe is the only original Republican co-sponsor.

The bill has a six-prong approach to keeping welfare rolls down and poverty on the decline:

. Increasing child support collections and making the child support enforcement program better for parents and children.

. Expanding the independent living program to provide college scholarships for foster children. The program already provides housing, counseling, job training and education for foster children.

. Expanding the earned income tax credit by creating a third tier for families with three or more children.

. Restoring the social services block grant to levels promised by the federal government in the 1996 welfare reform law.

. Encouraging employer-sponsored child care by allowing employers to claim a tax credit.

. Promoting responsible fatherhood by giving states and local governments flexibility to develop programs that encourage responsible parenting and stem the tide of fatherless families.

“Welfare reform has been successful in reducing the number of people on welfare, and now our focus must be on ensuring those families are able to stay off welfare,” Landrieu said. “Often, these families face many hardships, such as lack of affordable health care and child care or simply being unable to pay rent or buy groceries.”

The package would cost federal taxpayers $11.5 billion; 80 percent of that amount – or $8.5 billion – would come in the form of directed tax cuts for working families and small businesses.

The Bush administration’s budget blueprint includes funding for two sections of the bill: fatherhood programs (funded at about $64 million a year and $315 million over five years) and the child welfare program.

“The legislation highlights a growing national concern that we continue to help former welfare recipients and low-income workers stay on the payroll, and support their steps toward independence and economic self-sufficiency,” Sen. John Breaux, D-La., said. “The longer an individual works, the less likely they will return to the welfare rolls, and the more likely they will be promoted and earn more.”

Breaux said the legislation would help “more working families in Louisiana stay above the poverty line by giving parents the tools they need to care for their children, while remaining in the work force.”

Breaux, while a member of the Senate Finance Committee, helped push through the welfare reform bill five years ago.

Lieberman said Snowe and Bayh deserved the credit for bringing the bipartisan aspects of the bill together.

“The progress we have made could be an invitation to be complacent,” Lieberman said. “But we must recognize that serious challenges remain if we truly want to make work for low-income Americans. We still have work to do ourselves to fully transform our welfare system into a work and family system, one that will help low-income parents find and keep good jobs, and at the same time help them raise and nurture healthy children.”

“It honors our values – in this case the values of work and self-sufficiency – and strengthens families who take responsibility for their children emotionally and financially,” Bayh said. Bayh was instrumental in crafting a state welfare reform plan in Indiana when he was governor from 1989-1997.

“In 1994, we spent $247.8 million in Indiana on direct welfare payments to families,” Bayh recalled. “By the year 2000, we reduced that number by 66 percent – to $83.8 million. If you help people find work and dignity, they become self-sufficient.”

Studies show between 18 percent and 35 percent of those individuals who leave welfare rolls return when there is a good economy. In a downturn, the return rate may be much higher.

“The proposals brought forth by this bipartisan group are a way to keep working those who are committed to personal responsibility but are at the brink of not making it,” said Bayh. “The package continues to support work and self-sufficiency over welfare.”

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said the social services block grant component of the bill is a fundamental component of what the federal government should do for people.

The block grant, he said, “is arguably the main role of government: improving the lives of citizens. When the grant is fully funded, it makes a marked difference in families and communities. Of course, the opposite is also true. The massive cuts to this program, and the suffering they cause, are felt close to home.”

The block grant is used by states to finance children’s protective services, foster care, Meals on Wheels, and adoptions, among other programs.