Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: BELOW LENGTH: Medium
The GOP's overhaul, which goes to the House floor for a vote in two weeks, would cut spending on public assistance by at least $50 billion over five years.
``It's going to get a lot of people out of poverty. It's going to get a lot of people on the road toward being a whole person. It's going to do a lot of good,'' Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., said after the Ways and Means Committee approved the centerpiece bill, 22-11.
The Ways and Means bill:
Collapses federal cash welfare and foster care programs and sends them back to the states.
Imposes a five-year time limit on cash benefits.
Bans aid to unmarried parents under age 18.
Repeals the automatic guarantee of benefits for low-income mothers and their children, an ``entitlement'' that dates to 1935.
Reforms child support enforcement.
Bars most legal immigrants from the welfare rolls.
Replaces cash assistance to thousands of disabled children with expanded medical services.
One Democrat, Rep. Gerald Kleczka of Wisconsin, sided with the committee's GOP majority.
Hours earlier, the Agriculture Committee approved, 26-18, changes in the $27 billion food stamp program. They hold cost-of-living benefit adjustments to 2 percent a year, rather than basing them on inflation, and require single, able-bodied recipients between 18 and 50 to work.
The third piece of the GOP's plan consolidates federal child care, school lunches and other nutrition programs into three block grants to the states. It was approved two weeks ago by the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee.
by CNB