WASHINGTON WATCH: EMERSON AND THE WELFARE DEBATE

WASHINGTON -- When the Select Committee on Hunger was eliminated last year, it marked a dark time for its ranking Republican member. Rep. Bill Emerson not only lost a position he had spent much time and energy to achieve, he lost his best chance to impact legislation directly. Now, a year later, Emerson finds himself in the center of one of the most significant issues before the country, ironically, in part because the committee he would otherwise be chairing no longer exists.

Today at 8:30 a.m., Cape Girardeau time, Emerson will gavel to order the agriculture subcommittee responsible for reforming welfare."We are going to hear recommendations from state leaders, congressional leaders, agriculture representatives, private organizations and welfare recipients about how we can improve the system," said Emerson, chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture.

Near the top of the agenda will be reform of the food stamp program, which is second only to Medicaid in federal welfare dollars. Last year, total federal spending on food stamps climbed to $25.6 billion, twice what the program cost 10 years ago. With the increased spending has come increased fraud and abuse."No one has told me that the present system works," Emerson told the full agriculture committee last week. "It is a disaster, and the status quo is simply not acceptable. My guiding principles will be consolidation, integration and automation of the programs that comprise the welfare system."Underscoring Emerson's remarks was testimony by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Roger Viadero. Inspector General Viadero told the committee that $1.8 billion was overpaid to food stamp recipients in 1993. Over a quarter of that resulted from recipients who concealed income or inflated household expenses in order to obtain greater amounts of benefits than they were eligible to receive. An even larger problem, according to Viadero, is the "widespread" and "increasing" incidence of street trafficking and retailer fraud. No dollar cost can be estimated, Viadero testified, "since street trafficking frequently involves individuals who are neither eligible recipients nor authorized dealers." But "it is significant."Instead of talking about total numbers, Viadero focused on specific cases. One case in New York, concerned a man who ran a fictitious retail store as a front for food stamp wholesaling."In one 22-month period, the defendant illegally accepted more than $40 million in food stamps from over 600 restaurants, retail stores and other businesses," Viadero said. "In one month alone, he illegally redeemed over $4.7 million worth of stamps, almost 5 percent of all food stamps redeemed that month in New York City."Viadero also showed clips from surveillance videos of men trading food stamps for crack cocaine and dollars. Some of the dollars, explained Viadero, went to the purchase of firearms."This must change," insisted Emerson.

Food stamps and food stamp fraud are only part of welfare reform. Emerson expects to take the discussions further. How successful he will be, however, is unclear. His committee's recommendations will be voted on by the full agriculture committee before moving onto the House floor, where they will be joined by recommendations from other full committees. So far, there is no clear consensus. While some legislators push for cleaning up the current system, others argue that the whole mess should be sent to the states. Partisan politics, meanwhile, lurks beneath almost all events in Washington nowadays.

For his part, Emerson challenges his colleagues to think boldly. "The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the present," he says, quoting Abraham Lincoln. "We must think anew and act anew."

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.