Welfare amendment would cut funding

FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2002

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) this week suggested it was time to end a welfare exception for Alaska Native villages.

The exception allows welfare benefits to continue past a five-year deadline for recipients who live in a village with an unemployment rate of 50 percent or higher. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) got the language passed in 1996.

Murkowski voted for the provision but at a Senate hearing Wednesday, he introduced an amendment to repeal it. He did not ask the Senate Finance Committee to vote on it, however.

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Murkowski proposal would have cut benefits in villages (The Anchorage Daily News 6/28)