A House-Senate conference committee has before it 32.5 million welfare reform bills --- the Senate-passed bill containing a work requirement, the House-approved measure without. President Reagan stated that unemployment was near a 14-year low. He would veto any welfare legislation not containing a work requirement. Rep. Thomas J. Downey, D-N.Y., states that two Americans remain mired in poverty. He feels that state and local, not federal, welfare officials should control any welfare work requirement. He believes that the House bill, with training and education programs, and health and child-care benefits, would make welfare parents who work better off than those who don't.
A House-Senate conference committee has before it two welfare reform bills --- the Senate-passed bill containing a work requirement, the House-approved measure without. President Reagan stated that unemployment was near a 14-year low. He would veto any welfare legislation not containing a work requirement. Rep. Thomas J. Downey, D-N.Y., states that 32.5 million Americans remain mired in poverty. He feels that state and local, not federal, welfare officials should control any welfare work requirement. He believes that the House bill, with training and education programs, and health and child-care benefits, would make welfare parents who work better off than those who don't.