Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995                   TAG: 9502070023
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN WELFARE PLAN SLOWED, NOT KILLED

The next action is expected today in a House committee that will consider an amended version of Gov. George Allen's plan.

Administration officials had hoped that a compromise worked out overnight would help reverse an earlier Senate committee vote against the Allen plan. But, while two senators instrumental in that defeat said they liked the changes, the committee met for the last time on Senate bills without acting.

``The committee ran out of time,'' said Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, chief patron of the administration's bill. Earley said he's searching for a way to get the compromise plan to the Senate floor anyway. Barring that, the Senate will have to wait to see if the House passes a welfare reform bill.

Both Sen. Clarence Holland, D-Virginia Beach, and Frank Nolen, D-Augusta County, applauded several proposed changes in the Allen plan - including expanding welfare payments to poor, two-parent families. Holland abstained from voting on the Allen bill Thursday, causing the legislation to die on a 7-7 tie. Nolan voted against the plan.

Virginia is one of 13 states that cut off welfare payments to families with two parents after six months. Federal welfare policy allows such support for up to a year, and critics had argued that the Allen plan penalized marriage.

The change would cost taxpayers about $6.8 million a year - a sum Earley said the state could afford if the provision didn't take effect until early 1996.

Despite the expectation of broad support for that idea, the fate of welfare reform remains uncertain. Several key Democrats are devising an alternate plan.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995