Welfare Overhaul Likely to Be Dropped [View All]

[Eugene]

Welfare Overhaul Likely to Be Dropped

By ANDREW TAYLOR
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 15, 2005; 9:34 PM

WASHINGTON -- A plan to require welfare recipients to work 40 hours a week for their benefits hit
deep and probably decisive opposition from Senate moderates Thursday in negotiations on a GOP plan
to shave federal benefit programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and student loan subsidies.

The five-year, $40 billion-plus deficit reduction bill is a major plank in the GOP's platform but
its passage remains uncertain as negotiations stayed in limbo over physicians' Medicare fees,
whether to kill a program that compensates companies hurt by trading partners who "dump" their
exports and drilling for oil in an Alaska wildlife refuge.

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An official House-Senate negotiation session was slated for Friday on the parallel-track budget bill,
even as informal talks produced a series of tentative understandings on several disputed issues.

Senate GOP moderates appeared poised to carry the day on several of them. A House-sponsored
welfare-overhaul bill was unlikely to be included in the final measure after Sen. Olympia J. Snowe,
R-Maine, complained that it would provide far too little child care subsidies for parents facing an
increase in work requirements.

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501953.html