Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990                   TAG: 9003300344
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The New York Times and Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHILD-CARE BILL OK'D BY HOUSE

After a long day of often bitter debate, the bill was approved, 265-145. It passed only after a White House-backed coalition of conservative Democrats and Republicans failed by 26 votes to win agreement on a substitute that would have shaved costs by $8.5 billion.

Presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater announced that if the House-passed bill prevails in a House-Senate conference, President Bush will veto it.

The bill would bolster the Head Start program, provide block grants to states to expand day-care programs and give vouchers to parents to pay for child care of their choice, including that provided by religious institutions.

Under this program, parents would be given vouchers, or certificates, by the states that could be used to pay for all or a portion of child care.

The bill is estimated to cost $27 billion over the next five years, $18 billion of which would come in tax revenues that would be lost through expanding tax credits to families earning less than $20,270 a year.

Differences remain to be worked out between the House measure and a bill passed by the Senate in June.

The Senate bill relies primarily on direct grants to states, for use at their discretion. The House measure relies more heavily on tax credits and block grants specifying that the money must go to child care.

Virginia Democrats Rick Boucher, L.F. Payne and Norman Sisisky and Republican Stanford Parris voted for the bill. Voting against it were Democrats Jim Olin and Owen Pickett, and Republicans Herbert Bateman, Thomas J. Bliley Jr., French Slaughter and Frank Wolf.