Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : GOP Won’t Add to Debt-Limit Measure

Republican lawmakers backed away from attaching an overhaul of welfare and Medicaid to must-pass legislation raising the government’s borrowing limit. The move, discussed at a meeting of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and other GOP leaders, would severely diminish but not end the chance of passing a major revision of both programs this year. At the meeting, Republicans agreed the debt-limit extension should extend federal borrowing authority into July 1997. It would replace a measure expiring March 29.