G.O.P. Leaders Announce Welfare Consensus
House Republicans and a task force of Republican governors reached agreement late last week on the thrust of a G.O.P. bill to fundamentally remake the nation’s welfare system.
The plan would end the guarantee that anyone who qualifies can receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children. It would also consolidate nearly 50 federal welfare programs into three block grants to the states, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., R-Fla., the chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on human resources, said in a speech last week.
The plan would end A.F.D.C. payments to teenagers who have children, but would continue to provide them with food stamps and medical care, Mr. Shaw said.
As committee action begins this week, technical points may still need to be worked out between the governors and Capitol Hill lawmakers, said Karen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Michigan department of social services.
House Backs Crime Bill
The House last week approved the first in what is expected to be a series of bills designed to reshape the 1994 crime law that President Clinton signed last year.
The bills would relax rules barring the use of evidence obtained illegally, require people convicted of federal crimes to pay restitution to their victims, and make it more difficult for prisoners to appeal death-penalty convictions.
The House was expected to vote on two more crime bills late last week.
This week, the House is scheduled to vote on HR 728, which would repeal sections of the 1994 crime law authorizing some $6.9 billion in funding for prevention programs, some school-based. Instead, it would authorize $10 billion for a law-enforcement block grant, which local officials could use to hire more police, buy security equipment, or pay for crime-prevention programs.
O.C.R. Position Filled
The U.S. Justice Department has picked a veteran civil-rights lawyer from the Education Department to head its section assigned to insure equal educational opportunity.
The Justice Department recently announced that it has given the title of chief of the educational opportunities section to Kenneth A. Mines, the director of the Midwest office of the Education Department’s office for civil rights. He is to begin work in March.
