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Hhs Official Quits Over Welfare Reform Primus Says He Can’t Support Clinton’s Decision To Sign Bill

Barbara Vobejda Washington Post

Wendell E. Primus, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, has resigned in protest of President Clinton’s decision to sign the welfare legislation approved by Congress Aug. 1.

Primus, who has been an influential figure at HHS and on Capitol Hill for years, said in his letter of resignation: “I believe strongly that a political appointee must be able to support the administration’s policies that fall under his purview. Given the president’s decision to sign the welfare reform bill, I have no choice but to resign. To remain would be to disown all the analysis my office has produced regarding the impact of the bill.”

The letter, dated Aug. 17, was sent to HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. Department officials said they would not comment on the resignation, and Primus declined to comment beyond his letter of resignation.

Primus, who was deputy assistant secretary in the department’s office of planning and evaluation, was involved in a controversial analysis in the welfare debate last year, when HHS produced a study estimating the number of children that would be pushed into poverty if the bill before Congress were enacted.

Shalala took that analysis to the president to argue he should not support the bill, which he eventually vetoed twice.

The legislation approved this year, which Clinton has promised to sign, was changed substantially from the version last year. But an analysis released by the Urban Institute estimated the new bill would send 1.1 million more children into poverty. The institute estimated last year’s bill would have increased the number of children in poverty by 1.5 million.

Before joining the administration in 1993, Primus was a longtime aide on Capitol Hill, heading the staff of the human resources subcommittee of the powerful Ways and Means Committee when the Democrats controlled the House. An economist, he played a central role in crafting earlier versions of welfare legislation.