The last time welfare reform was a hot topic, some of the most passionate arguments on behalf of the poor were drowned out in what turned out to be a lopsided debate about "ending welfare as we know it."

"We weren't there in 1996. Our voices were not heard," charged Peter Edelman, a Georgetown University law professor, in a speech to activists meeting yesterday at Seattle University.

In part, he said, it was because people trusted a Democratic president "wouldn't do something as terrible as what he did." Edelman resigned from the Clinton administration in protest — he was an acting assistant secretary at Health and Human Services — after Congress passed the 1996 welfare-reform law.

This time, the activists pledge, they won't be caught on the sidelines.

More than 400 nonprofit leaders, community organizers, government officials and others met this weekend to spotlight a new approach to welfare reform that makes ending poverty the goal, not just reducing welfare rolls.

That message comes as a new national debate gets under way.

President Bush on Tuesday released his welfare plan, calling for tougher work requirements, new initiatives to help welfare recipients make the transition from welfare to work and a new push for them to get married.

Conference speakers called his plan underfunded, mean-spirited and "a moral crusade against the poor."

Several other bills by Democrats are also being introduced as Congress prepares to debate reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, which gave states block grants to create programs linking welfare to work and setting a five-year lifetime limit on welfare.

In Washington, the state's WorkFirst program has helped cut public-assistance caseloads by about 40 percent.

Program backers point to the sharp drop in the number of people receiving assistance as proof that it worked. Many of those parents are now supporting families without government help, they say.

But conference attendees say many of those people were losing economic ground even before the recession hit. Now, many of those who still have jobs are stuck in low-wage work and need child-care subsidies, food stamps and other aid to get by, they say.

The median wage for people who have left welfare in Washington is less than $7.50 an hour, said Tony Lee of the Fremont Public Association, one of the state's largest social-service organizations. About 43 percent of those leaving welfare report cutting back on their meals often or sometimes.

"A lot of people, yes, they got jobs, but they didn't make it out of poverty," Edelman said.

They're working as housekeepers, landscapers, child-care workers, and are "making our standard of living better at their expense," he said. "They are subsidizing us."

Speakers said Bush's proposal maintains funding for welfare but makes no adjustments for inflation and offers no new money for child-care subsidies.

When speakers mentioned Bush's marriage proposal, the audience laughed.

"It is just bizarre. ... That's a cultural war they're trying to start," Edelman said of the Bush administration.

The "Washington Working Families Campaign 2002," which organized the conference, is a statewide coalition of organizations representing workers, welfare recipients, immigrants and others concerned about welfare reform's effect on families.

It is part of an emerging national movement by activists seeking to highlight what they call the shortcomings of welfare reform. In addition to its goal of ending poverty, the group calls for better access to education and training, restoring eligibility for government aid to legal immigrants and lifting the five-year limit on benefits for parents who are working.

Jolayne Houtz can be reached at 206-464-3122 or jhoutz@seattletimes.com.