Marriage Fund for Poor Proposed

The bill would set aside $1.5 million a year for the federal contributions to marriage development accounts. It would send another $1.5 million to the East Capitol Center for Change of Washington or the National Center for Fathering of Kansas City, Mo., to work with churches to provide marriage counseling and couples mentoring.

Individuals would get a $200 bonus upon getting married, and couples would get a $300 bonus for participating in marital counseling.

Some analysts said they doubted whether such incentives would significantly influence poor working women in their decisions about marriage.

"I can't see how it would hurt, but I can't see how it helps, either," Urban Institute analyst Gregory Acs said.

"If the senator is thinking of using matched savings as an incentive for marriage, then I would say there are more important reasons to get married. As a Kansan myself, I imagine the people back home would wonder what the senator could be thinking," said Michael Sherraden, a Washington University professor who helped develop individual development accounts. Sherraden said he had not seen Brownback's bill.

The senator's plan is more generous than the individual development account program in the District, which is limited to couples earning less than $25,660 and individuals earning less than $19,140, and which provides a federal match of 2 to 1, his aides said.

"I personally could have found better ways to spend 3 million federal dollars," D.C. shadow senator Paul Strauss (D) said. "But at least this time, the right-wing social policy engineers brought carrots instead of sticks to the D.C. budget process."

The budget bill that cleared the Senate committee includes $593 million in direct federal aid to the District, according to Brownback's staff.

The Senate bill includes two other Brownback initiatives: $2 million in assistance for Hispanic youths and $3 million to help former offenders find housing upon release from prison.