NATION/WORLD The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 12, 1996 - 5A 2 Clinton aides resign in protest of welfare bill Move illustrates divisions in adminis- tration The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Two high- ranking officials at the Department of Health and Human Services resigned yesterday in protest over President Clinton's decision to sign the welfare bill, an unusually public move that underscores the deep divi- sions within the administration over the legislation. Peter Edelman, acting assistant sec- retary for planning and evaluation, and Mary Jo Bane, assistant secretary for children and families, submitted their letters of resignation yesterday, both cit- ing the welfare measure as the reason for their leaving. The resignations were notable not only because they represented open dis- content with a president among his own appointees, but because of the promi- nence of the two officials involved. Edelman and his wife, Children's Defense Fund president Marian Wright Edelman, have had a close personal friendship with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. And Bane has long been one of the country's leading acad- emics on welfare issues, as the author of books and research that have influ- enced thinking and policy-making on the subject. Both were part of a brain trust on welfare policy overseen by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, who was among several Clinton advisers said to have been protesting behind the scenes when the president was debating whether to sign the legislation last month. Conservatives and liberals agreed yesterday that the resignations were unlikely to have much impact on the presidential campaign, but they nonetheless saw the moves as evidence of Clinton's lingering disaffection among liberals. The left has been generally vocal in its anger over the welfare bill and dis- appointed in the president's more-cen- trist stance on issues from affirmative action and gay marriage to reducing the size of government. The welfare legislation, which becomes effective Oct. 1, ends the six- decade-old guarantee of assistance to eligible poor Americans, turns control of welfare programs over to the states and reduces future federal spending on these programs by $54 billion over the next six years. "I have devoted the last 30-plus years to doing whatever I could to help in reducing poverty in American," wrote Edelman. "I believe the recently enact- ed welfare bill goes in the opposite direction." Bane, whose office is in charge of implementing the new law, said her "deep concerns about the welfare bill ... have led me to conclude that I can- not continue to serve." Neither Edelman nor Bane would comment beyond their prepared state- ments, and it was unclear why they waited for more than a month after Clinton announced his intention to sign the bill to offer their resigna- tions. The departure of Edelman and Bane follows by a month the resignation of another top HHS official, Wendell Primus, deputy assistant secretary for policy and evaluation, who also left in protest over the welfare bill. Such public protests are rare in American governement. Although sev- eral State Department officials resigned to show their displeasure with the Clinton administration's earlier policy on Bosnia, there have been no similar actions over domestic policy. Edelman, Bane and Primus, along with David Ellwood, who resigned his assistant secretary post at HHS a year ago, were central players in formulating the administration's welfare policy. In the line of duty AP PHOTO Milwaukee police officers comfort each other yesterday after the funeral of fellow Officer Wendolyn Odell Tanney in Milwaukee. Tanney was shot and killed Saturday while pursuing a thief. f to exact prce for inactio over Gingnch WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican-led House ethics commit- e probe of Newt Gingrich appears estined to outlast his first two-year term as speaker, and Democrats are try- ing to exact a political price for the inaction. After persistently accusing commit- tee Republicans of stalling the 20- month investigation, Democrats are intensifying attacks on individual law- makers, calling on one GOP member to resign from the panel and condemning thers in their districts. Democrats are linking their assaults to the GOP refusal to make public an outside counsel's report submitted last 'month. James Cole's document was described by committee members as a summary of evidence on whether Gingrich complied with tax laws when raising money for his unconventionally financed college course. To increase the pressure, Democrats re likely to force a vote on the House Probers ay blow 'myupo empt jet as Study The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Investigators are considering blowing up an empty Boeing 747 jumbojet to study the dam- age in the hope it would help them to .analyze the wreckage recovered from rans World Airlines Flight 800, which exploded mysteriously off the Long Island coast July 17, according to sources involved in the case. The deliberate destruction of a jumbo jet is one of several new approaches discussed yesterday during a meeting of senior crash investigators and their staff at a hangar in Calverton, N.Y., where sections of the plane are cng analyzed and reassembled on a craffolding. Those who attended the I 1/2-hour briefing expressed concern that should the 8-week-old inquiry continue to yield a dearth of physical evidence, it would be impossible to figure out why the 747 cracked up and plunged into the ocean unless more innovative steps are taken. Even then, they said, pinpointing what happened to Flight 800 would *main a tough task. A controlled explosion of another 747 would take place on the ground and most likely near the center fuel tank of the aircraft, the sources said. floor to make Cole's report public - and are considering other tactics, such as linking formal adjournment to action on the ethics case. Wicker said. "We're fully expecting ... partisan salvos in the next three weeks." The ethics committee of five "It's the same tactics going on for two years," said House Minority Whip David Bonior of Michigan, who is leading the Democratic effort. The minority Dem oc rats shouldn't expect GOP support, said duck, delay and stall Republicans and /It's the same duck, delay and stall tactics going on for two years." - David Bonior House Minority Whip five Democrats has often sputtered in partisan deadlock in the Gingrich case, although past committees have broken through such divisiveness to decide difficult c a s e s. Democratic Speaker Jim Wright resigned committee charged pigpm 'm Ypm student 9pm ~rIrmaces r 4 F^ "T c.> 1~ Q *' ' .. _.. J -J J4 call i l0 7 Rep. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who was freshman Republican class president last year. "The committee should proceed in the normal course of events and not be governed by the date of the elec- tion or the date of final adjournment," in 19$9 after the him with rules violations. Gingrich, who filed the complaint against Wright, demanded that the outside counsel's report in that case be made public, and the committee complied. a or a weekly update of U-Club events /' Entree Plus accepted - - - - - - - _ on the first floor of the Michigan Union The University Club Is a private club for students, faculty, alumni and their accompanied guests sUF Tyv& &5BRR' Sponsored by: Andersen ConsultingM ies Arthur AndersenMidwest Hewitt Associates Leo Burnett Company November 22, 1996 Partial List of Employers: Andersen Consulting Arthur Andersen Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Central Intelligence Agency Citibank Defense Intelligence Agency Delphi-Saginaw, GMC Federated Department Stores Fidelity Investments First Chicago General Mills Hewitt Associates Leo Burnett Manor Care, Inc. Merrill Lynch Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals Price Waterhouse Prudential Securities Reuters America, Inc. PLUS MANY MORE H! 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