NEW YORK –  Former President Bill Clinton is leaping to President Obama's defense after a new Romney attack ad accused the president of tearing down one of the signature bipartisan accomplishments from Clinton's term.

The Romney ad asserts the Obama administration is weakening the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, welfare reforms that Clinton passed with a Republican Congress. It claims the president's plan would "gut welfare reform" by dropping work requirements.

The administration rejects that description and says it's not unilaterally repealing or waiving the law but giving states the chance to make changes to their welfare programs. Some Republican governors have requested that flexibility.

Clinton backed up the Obama administration in a Tuesday night statement, slamming Romney's assertion as "not true" and calling the ad "misleading."