The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, February 4, 1995             TAG: 9502040314
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Short :   44 lines

WELFARE-REFORM BILL TAKES A LICKING - BUT STILL TICKS ALLEN'S PLAN FAILED IN THE SENATE FRIDAY. NEXT STEP IS A HUNT FOR COMPROMISE.

Efforts to revive the Allen administration's welfare-reform bill stalled in the Senate on Friday, but sponsors said the legislation is still alive.

The next action is expected today in a House committee that will consider an amended version of Gov. George F. Allen's plan.

Administration officials had hoped that a compromise worked out overnight would help reverse an earlier Senate committee vote against the Allen plan.

But, while two senators instrumental in that defeat said they liked the changes, the committee met for the last time on Senate bills without acting.

``The committee ran out of time,'' said Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, chief patron of the administration's bill. Earley said he's searching for a way to get the compromise plan to the Senate floor anyway. Barring that, the Senate will have to wait to see if the House passes a welfare reform bill.

Both Sen. Clarence A. Holland, D-Virginia Beach, and Frank W. Nolen, D-New Hope, applauded several proposed changes in the Allen plan - including expanding welfare payments to poor, two-parent families.

Holland abstained from voting on the Allen bill on Thursday, causing the legislation to die on a 7-7 tie. Nolan voted against the plan.

Currently, Virginia is one of 13 states that cut off welfare payments to families with two parents after six months.

Federal welfare policy allows such support for up to a year, and critics had argued that the Allen plan penalized marriage.

The change would cost taxpayers about $6.8 million a year - a sum Earley said the state could afford if the provision didn't take effect until early 1996.

Despite the expectation of broad support for that idea, the fate of welfare reform remains uncertain. Several key Democrats are devising their own alternate plan.

KEYWORDS: WELFARE-REFORM by CNB