WEEL            Page 6

ate welfare services in Montana without federal funding of $89.3  million dollars.
Welfare funding is $121 million dollars,
biennially, ( $31.7 million in state funds) and would be severely underfunded if it
relied only on state funds.
WEEL activists in Missoula and
Helena were the only low-income people present at the satellite broadcast public hearing on April 21.  All the testimony statewide was overwhelmingly NOT in
favor of ending Montana's compliance with federal regulations and in favor of accepting  federal funds for TANF.  Not one
person statewide testified in favor of the proposed plan to eliminate the Montana's commitment to low income families!
WEEL members in Helena heard that the committee was not going to make a recommendation to the full legislature
after the hearings...and thanks to WEEL's
demands, Senator J.D. Lynch (D) Butte, moved that the committee make a
recommendation to NOT accept this plan. 
Only two members of the 8 person committee, HR Peggy Arnott (R) Billings and HR Duane Grimes (R) Clancy, MT.,  voted to not make  the recommendation (hiss--boo)!
Although this was a significant
victory we are not out of the woods....
now armed with a road map, extremely
conservative republicans will most likely raise this issue during the 1999 State
Legislature. 

On Sunday April 19, 1998 the
Missoulian newspaper reported that
Montana workers earn the lowest median wage, ranking (in last place) 50th in the nation for what our workers earn!  Yet some of Montana's politicians aim to all but eliminate the already shredded federal safety net. Some go as far as using red-baiting tactics, such as Tom Zook (R) from Miles City who recently referred to the proposed Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as "socialized medicine."
WEEL's Board of Directors has
identified CHIP and federal funding of Montana's welfare program as top
priorities.  We encourage everyone to
contact your elected officials and those running for office--ask them what their commitment is to Montana's working poor families.  Call WEEL to find out who your local representative is.

On April 21, 1998 a statewide public hearing was held on ending Montana's
compliance with federal regulations and federal funding of welfare in Montana.
The committee received a plan from the state Department of Health and Human Services outlining Montana's plan to oper