Quote of note:

Welfare policy is only one of many flashpoints in the bill, which reduces federal spending — primarily in social programs — by about $40 billion over the next five years. The higher education community is up in arms over changes in student loan programs, which account for $12.7 billion of the spending reductions. Cuts from Medicaid benefits, estimated at $7 billion, also are coming under fire.

Bill Tightens Rules for 2-Parent Welfare Families
By Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer
January 31, 2006

WASHINGTON — The wide-ranging spending-cut bill scheduled for a final House vote on Wednesday includes provisions toughening welfare regulations, including work requirements on two-parent welfare families that experts say is almost impossible to meet.

The Republican-backed bill would hold adults in two-parent families to a higher work standard than those in single-parent families. States that failed to meet the standard would lose some of their federal welfare money unless they chose to exclude two-parent families from assistance.

California, home to the largest number of two-parent families on welfare, would be hardest hit, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has written to the California congressional delegation in protest.

Sharon Parrott, a welfare expert with the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, said it was "the height of hypocrisy" for congressional Republicans, with the acquiescence of President Bush, to promote policies that would give states incentives to discriminate against two-parent families. "This isn't a pro-family policy," she said.