The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 28, 1994 - 5
Clinton
gives nod to
new Florida
welfare plan
WASHINGTON (AP)-In apre-
4 iew of the president's plan to over-
haul the nation's welfare system, the
Clinton administration gave Florida
permission yesterday to experiment
with time-limited benefits and subsi-
dies to employers who hire welfare
ecipients.
A senior administration official
said Florida's demonstration project
is significant because it mirrors Presi-
dent Clinton's efforts to expand edu-
cation, training and child-care for
Barents on welfare while limiting their
benefits to two years.
In his State of the Union address
'uesday, Clinton promised to intro-
l.hce welfare-reform legislation this
spring. Although the administration
has outlined its plan in broad terms, it
ias yet to make the tough decisions
,bout costs and financing.
Seventeen Senate Republicans,
acluding Minority Leader Bob Dole,
;ried to upstage Clinton by introduc-
:ng their own plan yesterday.
Similar to the House Republicans'
bill, the Senate measure would re-
quire more welfare recipients to work,
irmit aid to immigrants, and force
unmarried teenage mothers to live
0 with a parent to qualify for welfare.
In Florida, parents who partici-
1*e in the demonstration will be al-
lowed to collect welfare for a maxi-
mum of 24 months in any five-year
period. While on the rolls, parents
will be eligible for training, educa-
ion, child care, health insurance and
intensive case management.
The Clinton administration also
*wants to limit welfare benefits to 24
months over a certain length of time,
he senior administration official said.
Its plan will also include counseling,
education or training, and help with
child care for recipients preparing to
leave the rolls.,
In Florida, the state will guarantee
a minimum-wage job for recipients
unable to locate work at the end of 24
months, according to the federal De-
,partment of Health and Human Ser-
Aces.
The state will offer incentive pay-
ments to private companies that hire
welfare recipients. Employer subsi-
dies will also be an element of the
Clinton plan, the administration offi-
cial said.
"Able-bodied people who want to
work will get the chance to work and
*ihose who don't want to work will be
out the door in two years. Those who
truly can't work will be unaffected by
this new program," said Jim Towey,
secretary of Florida's Department of
Health and Rehabilitative Services.
Parents who refuse to comply will
.ose their share of the family's wel-
Fare check. Payments to the children
could continue, but only through a
whird party.
The "Family Transition Program"
will operate for eight years in two
counties - Alachua and Escambia
+- beginning next month. I
1: .. , 1 7 7
RA hopefuls fret
over possible
housing dilemma
CHRIS WOLF/Daily
Jane Bortnick-Griffith explains her vision of a world connected through a fully digital communications and library
environment.
Speaker explins0gvernment
plans tol regulate Iternetus
By JANET BURKITT
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
While most University students
have long since signed their leases for
next year, a few must wait on pins and
needles until Feb. 28 - the day they
find out if they will be a resident
advisor (RA) orresidentdirector(RD).
The process of applying for these
positions is long - too long, many
applicants complain.
"The process of RA selection takes
several months," said Kate Cross, an
LSA fifth-year senior and Stockwell
RA.
"It really is time consuming to
apply, andIdon't know if there would
be any way to streamline the process
unless they changed it completely."
So why does the housing division
waituntil January to initiate the appli-
cation process?
Linda Gardner, an employee of
the Hill Management Center in the
Housing Division, cites the academic
standing of the students involved as
the primary factor in determining
when the application process begins.
"The major reason they do it when
they do is grade verification. Appli-
cants must have a 2.5 GPA and 48
credit-hours to be eligible, and their
first-semester grades are needed as
criteria for this," Gardner explained.
The process began when hundreds
of potential applicants participated in
mass meetings earlier this month.
For the approximately 600 stu-
dents who decided to try for a posi-
tion, applications were due Jan. 20.
Then the applicants role-played in
situations that mirror the problems
RAs and RDs typically face. Current
RAs and RDs rate the performances
of the applicants, and those who scored
in the top 75 percentile become eli-
gible for individual interviews.
These applicants will be notified
Feb. 2 whether they have been se-
lected for interviews.
'I'm kind of worried
about what I 'l do next
year if I don't get an
RA position.'
- Matthew Robinson
LSA sophomore
On the basis of these interviews,
conducted next month,just more than
100 applicants will be offered posi-
tions.
This leaves the few hundred re-
maining grappling with the question
of where they will live in the upcome
ing year - a question that inevitably
causes much anxiety.
"I'm kind of worried about what
I'll do next year if I don't get an RA
position. MaybeI'll have to live in the
dorms again next year if I don't get
accepted, but I'd rather live with
friends off campus," said LSA sopho
more Matthew Robinson.
The housing dilemma RA appli-
cants face is by no means a new one.
Two years before she was accepted
to be an RA, Cross applied and was
rejected for a position, forcing her to
find an alternativeliving arrangement.
"Luckily, I had some friends t9
live with in University Place at
Fletcher, but for people who want to
live off-campus there are fewer op-
tions," Cross said.
Jamie Twesten, a third-yeai
Inteflex student, is one such person
considering himself fortunate to have
gotten off-campus housing after be-
ing turned down for an RA position
last year.
"At the last minute, I was able to
sign a lease with some friends. I was
pretty worried when I didn't get ac-
cepted to be an RA because I was
afraid I wouldn't be able to get good
housing. The house I ended up getting
was inexpensive, but it was also re-
ally far from campus," Twesten said.
By ANDREW TAYLOR
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
While cruising down the "Infor-
mation Highway" you can do any-
thing. There are no rules.
However, the government could
soon post a few stop lights on the
Internet to keep the traffic under con-
trol and ensure no one gets hurt.
The Internet is an elaborate tele-
communications network intercon-
necting hundreds of thousands of com-
puters to provide access to unfathom-
able amounts of information to any-
one with a desktop computer.
Yesterday Jane Bortnick-Griffith,
assistant chief for the Science Policy
Research Division of The Library of
Congress, discussed current public
policy ideas to regulate the system.
Officials are in a debate about
how to compensate people for mak-
ing their information public.
Since no one owns the Internet,
anyone can make their computer an
access point for others.
"So a lot of this stuff does not
come from any type of establishment,
butcomes outof people who say, 'I'm
going to put this up there,"'Bortnick-
Griffith said.
For example, when a newspaper
publishes itself on the Internet, people
can read the paper without paying for
the copy orseeing the advertisements.
Bortnick-Griffith said, "Unless
you provide a compensation system,
there is a sense that the good stuff will
never get up there."
She said thousands of people are
making things available over Internet,
but added the best information is not
getting on to the network.
Many officials say the technology
exists to monitor who accesses which
computers, and customers could be
charged a bill for the information they
use. However, others refute the no-
tion, claiming that people would not
use the Internet if they had to pay for
virtually every key stroke.
"In some cases you may have a
collective agreement, but in others it
may be a pay-per-view," Bortnick-
Griffith said.
Another role of the government
will be to guarantee that all Ameri-
cans have equal access to the Internet,
just as the law mandates everyone
have access to a telephone.
"People are very concerned about
inner cities and rural areas being left
out of this," Bortnick-Griffith said.
Bortnick-Griffith said the govern-
ment wants to allow any company the
right to package Internet services -
just like competing phone companies
can provide various services for their
customers.
"Open it all up, but ensure that it's
equitable, ensure that it's really open,"
Bortnick-Griffith said.
Pt
Private health care neglects those with disabilities
WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly
half the nation's 24 million people
with severe disabilities lack private
health insurance, the Census Bureau
said yesterday in its first comprehen-
sive survey of Americans facing spe-
cial challenges.
Altogether, 49 million Americans
have a disability that keeps them from
doing one or more of the common
activities of life, such as moving
around the home, getting in or out of
bed or a chair, bathing, dressing, eat-
ing or going to the toilet.
Whether severe or not, a disability
lessens the chance of getting private
health insurance, the government sur-
vey shows.
Forty-three percent of the severely
disabled lack private health cover-
age. So do 34 percent of all Ameri-
cans with disabilities, severeorother-
wise.
That's far above the 25 percent of
all Americans uncovered by private
insurers.
"It amounts to legalized discrimi-
nation within the insurance indus-
try," said Linda Kild, managing di-
rector of the Disability Rights Educa-
tion and Defense Fund, a law and
policy center.
Health-insurance policies that ex-
clude pre-existing conditions or
charge higher premiums for people
with severe health problems often
force the disabled to enter institutions
or dispose of their assets in order to be
eligible for public assistance, Kild
said.
Most of the disabled who lack
private coverage get health benefits
from the government.
"We're concerned about disabled
people as well, and we're trying to
work through the president's health
reform proposal," said Dan DiFonzo,
spokesperson for the Health Insur-
ance Association of America, an in-
dustry group.
"We believe the best change to the
system is going to occur when health
security is assured to all Americans
through this pending law."
Clinton's proposal would require
coverage of all Americans regardless
of health and pre-existing conditions.
Three out of four severely dis-
abled Americans in their earning
years, 21 to 64, don't have jobs, the
census study said.
"We found that lack of health-
care coverage is one of the biggest
impairments to people going out to
get a job," said John Lancaster, ex-
ecutive assistant to the chair of the
President's Committee on Employ-
ment of People With Disabilities.
Suzanne Liquerman of Stratford,
Conn., slipped on a wet floor and
damaged her hip in 1985.
Nine years later, she walks with
difficulty, leads an active life as a
volunteer showing people how to re-
move physical barriers to the dis-
abled, and wants desperately to get a
paid job.
"If I go back to work and give back
my benefits, my medical coverage is
compromised," she said.
"I'm forced to stay in a position of
being on entitlements and being de-
pendent. That's very frustrating.
That's my anger."
After the accident, the slow real-
ization that things might never get
back to normal gave way to discour-
agement.
"It's demoralizing," Liquerman
said. "Your self-esteem is lower. You
feel less adequate."
The study also found severely dis-
abled Americans are far more likely
to receive many forms of government
assistance-twice as likely as Ameri-
cans in general to receive government
housing assistance, nearly four times
as likely to receive food stamps and
nearly six times as likely to need cash
assistance.
The study was conducted between
1991 and 1992 and excluded disabled
individuals who were living in nurs-
ing homes and other institutions at
that time.
Japan still in deadlock over political reform
TOKYO (AP)-Negotiators from
he two houses of Parliament aban-
*oned efforts to compromise on anti-
corruption reforms, throwing Japa-
nese politics into deeper turmoil yes-
terday night.
Prime Minister Morihiro
Hosokawa said earlier in the day that
he is ready to quit if the reforms fail.
"If I cannot deliver on my promise
of political reform, I will not insist on
the post of prime minister," he said.
Hosokawa said failure to enact
reforms would doom five years of
effort and would make "the loss of
confidence in Japan's party politics
complete, and Japan would lose the
trustof the international community."
The deadlock over reforms also
has prevented Hosokawa's govern-
ment from putting together a stimulus
package for Japan's stagnant economy
and distracted it from trade talks with
the United States that face a Feb. 11
deadline. Pessimism in the business
community led to more selling on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange, where the
Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.3 percent
yesterday.
With the Parliament session end-
ing Saturday, the committee of 10
lawmakers from each house was un-
able to narrow differences over how
legislators should be elected and
whether they should receive corpo-
rate donations, chairperson Yuichi
Ichikawa said.
Hosokawa urged Yohei Kono,
head of the opposition Liberal Demo-
cratic Party, to meet with him in an
attempt to break the deadlock.
"It is in the 50-odd hours we have
left that we must show the world that
Japan has become a mature democ-
racy whose people are able to make
wise decisions," Hosokawa said at a
news conference.
Early today Kono declined to hold
a meeting, the Japan Broadcasting
Corp. reported.
The reform bills were passed by
Parliament's lower house in Novem-
ber but voted down by the upper house
last Friday in a serious blow to
Hosokawa's government.
Hosokawa's only other chance is
to have the lower house override the
upper house by a two-thirds vote re-
approving the package.
When Hosokawa's coalition won
elections in August, he vowed to re-
form Japan's political system.
The dispute threatens to splinter
both the Liberal Democratic and So-
cialist parties because of differences
of views on reform within each party.
Read The R.H. Factor
in Daily Sports
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