ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Above
The House approved a bill Thursday that would reverse decades of anti-poverty policy, turning the federal guarantee of assistance to the poor into a time-limited, work-oriented program largely run by the states.
The measure, approved 256-170, represented the House's third try after two previous bills were vetoed by President Clinton. This one was closer to what he has said he can accept, but the food stamp limits and budget savings it included meant a third veto still was possible.
All Virginia Republicans voted for the bill, and all Virginia Democrats supported it except Reps. Owen Pickett of Virginia Beach and Norman Sisisky of Petersburg, who voted against it.
The vote was short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto. The Senate, too, was debating the bill.
``It's strong welfare reform, and it's what the American people have wanted for years,'' Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, said as debate opened. ``Families on welfare deserve much, much more than the sad status quo.''
The bill would end a family's welfare benefits after two years unless the able-bodied family head gets a job. It would limit lifetime welfare benefits to five years per family while letting states grant hardship exemptions for up to 20 percent of recipients. It also would replace four major welfare programs with block grants to states, which would get more freedom in how they spend the money.
Key White House criticisms of the Republican bill included the $59 billion in savings it envisions over six years - much of it coming from food stamps and from eliminating benefits to many legal immigrants - and its prohibition on states using federal block grant money to provide vouchers for benefits for children after their parents reach the time limits.
But even the Democratic alternative shared many features with the GOP bill.
Clinton, who vowed during his 1992 presidential campaign to ``end welfare as we know it,'' has urged Congress to send him a bill before recessing in August.
Still, he is not afraid to veto a third measure if it fails to meet his standards, his spokesman and congressional Democratic leaders say.
The Senate, by voice vote, followed the lead of the House and the wishes of Clinton by cutting Medicaid changes out of the welfare bill.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, predicted Clinton would sign this bill, saying: ``The third time, they say in lore, is always a charm.''
Clinton contended the previous measures provided insufficient protections for the most vulnerable Americans.
But Kasich said, ``At some point, people are going to have to learn how to help themselves.'' There are protections for those who cannot do so, he said.
The House defeated 258-168 a bipartisan measure supported by the White House and offered as the Democratic alternative. It would have limited savings to $53 billion, eliminated the option of food stamp block grants, allowed children of legal immigrants to get benefits and let states use block grant money for vouchers after parents' benefits ended.
Speaker Newt Gingrich revealed GOP concerns about that bill by writing to fellow Republicans that it was a ``Democratic leadership effort to seize control of the issue.''
Only nine Republicans supported that measure.
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