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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 30, 1995                   TAG: 9506300061
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

VA. STILL WAITING FOR FEDERAL OK OF PLAN

With time growing short for the federal government to approve Virginia's welfare reform plan, the state may have to rely on verbal approval.

As of Thursday, there was no word on the outcome of a plan review by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the status of the state's application for a waiver from federal welfare requirements. The waiver is needed before the plan can become law Saturday.

But one social services director, who said he discussed the waiver this week with Carol Brunty, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services, said the state may have found some relief from the deadline pressure.

"I understood that if they don't get a waiver, they will be getting verbal approval of some sort to go ahead with the project," said Leighton Lankford, director of the Bedford County Department of Social Services.

The federal government must approve any changes in the way states administer Aid to Families with Dependent Children., one of the nation's primary forms of welfare.

Michael Kharfen, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said this week that Virginia's application for a federal welfare waiver was the first to be made after an implementation date was set.

Health and Human Services policy is to act on waiver requests in 120 days. The state submitted its application on March 28, about 90 days ago.

by CNB