Some Help for Working Moms

If there was one social program that congressional Democrats could exploit as a campaign rallying cry, it was child care. With elections looming this fall, they should have been in a position to trumpet their efforts to help working mothers, 75% of whom tell pollsters that they are unable to find adequate care for their children while they are on the job. Instead, House Democrats have allowed the first nationwide child-care system to become mired in committee turf battles for six months. As Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, tartly observed last week, "If this bill were an actual child, Congress long ago would have been found guilty of abuse and neglect."

On one side of the impasse was Congressman Thomas Downey of New York, who wanted to pay for expanded day-care services through existing block grants to the states, which are less subject to Congress's political whims. On the other side was Congressman Augustus Hawkins of California, who wanted the Federal Government to give the money directly to child-care providers. Hawkins, an 82- year-old New Dealer who will retire from Congress this year after serving 14 terms, would like to be remembered for his work on a major new social program.

Last week, after beating back a White House-supported effort to further water down the Democrats' approach, Congress finally settled on a plan. Members voted 265 to 145 to establish a system that will provide $27 billion over five years to poor parents through income-tax credits and direct subsidies. The bill requires states to set health standards at day-care centers, expands Head Start programs for poor children and provides school- based care for up to 10 million so-called latchkey kids who would otherwise go unattended after school. In a compromise with conservatives, Democrats agreed to require states to issue vouchers that parents can use to pay for child care even at centers operated by religious institutions.

The bill will now go to a House-Senate conference committee, where it will again be rewritten before being sent on to the White House. There it may fare no better than a child-care program that Richard Nixon vetoed in 1971. Objecting to the high cost of the program and federal standards for child-care ( centers, a senior Bush Administration official pronounced the bill a "monstrosity" and promised a veto. There will be more partisan bickering while the urgent needs of parents and children go unmet.