MADISON - Local lawmakers can't agree on just how successful were their efforts to reform the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program.

Both houses of the state Legislature on Thursday unanimously passed a bill intended to prevent fraud in the program.

Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to sign the package of reforms into law. However, local lawmakers are clearly of different minds when it comes to what they've accomplished.

The Assembly took up the bill late Thursday during a marathon all-night session that lasted until well into Friday morning. The Senate approved the bill earlier in the day Thursday, the last day of the regular 2009 session.

Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, applauded the legislators' work saying the bill would "give local governments and regulators the ability to find and prevent fraud in the Wisconsin Shares program and ensure children receiving care are in safe environments."

The reform bill passed will: prohibit recipients convicted of fraud from receiving any benefits for up to five years; would require county workers to report suspected fraud; and would allow counties to retain funds they recover through fraud investigation and prosecution to help cover investigative costs.

Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, said the bill passed by the Legislature was "a small step in the right direction, but ... is only the beginning."

Vos criticized Democrats for rejecting several amendments, created with input from officials in Milwaukee and Racine counties, including giving $2.5 million to counties to detect and prevent fraud and requiring fingerprinting for a more thorough background check for those applying to be a child care provider.

Vos blamed his colleagues on the other side of the aisle for listening to "the bureaucrats in Madison instead of the front-line county workers" and said that because they rejected amendments, several of which he proposed, "the Wisconsin Shares program remains a giant pot of money wide open to scammers."