House Committee Approves Welfare Reauthorization Package
By Charles Pekow
Welfare recipients may get to spend up to an additional six hours a week in class, courtesy of the government. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved a welfare reauthorization package that would allow “workfare” participants to count 16 hours a week of education or training as part of their work-activity total — up from the current 10-hour maximum.
The bill also states that recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families could spend four months of any two-year period in full-time school — if the education relates to employment.
The committee passed the bill both as stand-alone legislation and as part of a budget reconciliation package to double its chances of passing. With the same reasoning, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions re-approved its version of a Higher Education Act reauthorization as part of a budget reconciliation package.
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