Imperiling a Plan to Harness Idealism : National service bill deserves to be passed; end the Senate filibuster

In what is threatening to become a trademark display of obstructionism, Senate Republicans last week mounted their fourth major filibuster of the year, this time to block scheduling of a vote on President Clinton’s national service plan. And in the overall effort to block the program, some Republicans are engaging in deception about the popular bill. Their critical statements about the long-term costs and benefits of this plan, which offers educational grants in exchange for public service, verge on the ludicrous. Let’s set the record straight.

The national service measure is based on a simple idea. It would authorize educational grants of up to $5,000 a year each for the participants, numbering 150,000 by 1997, in exchange for their agreement to tutor grade school students, help senior citizens or perform other public services.

Clinton sold the idea during his campaign last fall as a way to kindle anew a sense of public spirit as well as to help students struggling with high college tuition costs.

Clinton originally intended the initiative to begin last month. But the program has been delayed--and significantly scaled back--as Congress has wrangled over the President’s budget package.

Clinton hoped to involve millions of participants and to provide grants larger than the $5,000 in this bill. Under the current version, only 20,000 to 25,000 persons would participate the first year, at a cost of $394 million. Nonetheless, even the attenuated plan is worth doing.

The program has a good deal of popular support. Its virtue lies in its promise to tap the creative energy of young people, to reward them for serving their country and communities and to help them finance their education.

Yet to Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, Republican leader of the Senate, the legislation is another example of “willy-nilly mortgaging of our future.” Come again? National service is not another government handout. Indeed, it is a cost-effective way to help Americans help themselves while providing necessary services to communities that government might otherwise have to fund.

Opponents have fought the measure with increasing vigor since last Tuesday. Supporters insist that a fair compromise is possible. A vote to end the filibuster is scheduled for today. The Senate should stop the games and pass this bill. Clinton isn’t going to get very much of his original budget proposal out of this deficit-oriented Congress, but the national service idea deserves a try.