House passes bill targeting Obama policy on welfare-to-work requirements

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans on Thursday passed a bill that would reverse what they call President Obama's relaxation of welfare-to-work requirements.

The House, on a mainly party-line 250-164 vote, passed a resolution that would force the administration to rescind new guidelines giving states more flexibility in how they administer the nation's main welfare program.

The vote coincides with a torrent of Republican campaign ads, rebutted by Democrats, that Obama is trying to gut the law that requires welfare recipients to find work.

The measure faces an uphill path in the Democratic-led Senate and would not be signed by the president. But the vote highlighted the Republican campaign charge that Obama is engaged in class warfare, a theme echoed by Republican rival Mitt Romney's recently revealed statement at a fundraiser that Obama represents the 47 percent of Americans who are dependent on government.

Reps. Dave Camp and John Kline, chairmen of the House Ways and Means and the Education committees, respectively, charged that the Obama administration "repeatedly has engaged in a systematic effort to undermine work and increase dependence across government benefit programs."

House Democrats said Republicans were deliberately distorting the intent of the administration guidelines and that three times during the George W. Bush administration House Republicans supported legislation that would have similarly given states more authority over welfare-to-work requirements.

The House resolution had one purpose, said Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Demfare law bars the administration from waiving the work requirement and citing a Government Accountability Office conclusion that the waiver plan should have been submitted to Congress for review.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said Republicans had introduced the resolution because "particularly during this week, such a very difficult and troubling week for Mitt Romney, they're a little desperate. They think they can hoodwink enough Americans to turn on their neighbors by falsely dividing us, dividing us between makers and takers, between manufacturers and moochers, between producers and parasites."

On Wednesday Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, unsuccessfully tried to bring a similar resolution of disapproval to the Senate floor but was blocked by Democrats. Both Hatch and the House were acting under a law that allows Congress to review new federal regulations under an expedited procedure. He pledged that he would renew his effort when Congress reconvenes after the election.

Republicans, joined by 19 Democrats, were unanimous in supporting the House bill.