NATION IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Governor Offers Plan for Welfare Reform

Gov. William F. Weld introduced dramatic welfare-reform legislation to eliminate traditional cash grants for able-bodied recipients, using the money instead to pay for day care, health care and child support for recipients who would then be expected to go to work. Those newly applying for welfare would have 90 days to find a job while receiving assistance, after which they would be required to perform community service or forfeit their cash benefits. Weld, a Republican, said the plan would put up to 50,000 welfare recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children--about half the state’s total--to work in either private sector or community service jobs over 12 to 15 months.