Federal News in Brief

President Clinton has signed landmark welfare legislation that ends 60 years of federal guarantees to millions of poor children and their families. The law, PL 104-193, transfers control of most federal welfare programs to the states, requires people on welfare to work, and imposes a five-year lifetime on welfare benefits.

"Today, we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life," Mr. Clinton said in an Aug. 22 signing ceremony...