NPR's Mara Liasson reports that President Bill Clinton announced today that he will sign the welfare reform bill resulting from a compromise between the House and Senate. One of the President's campaign promises was to "end welfare as we know it" but he vetoed other welfare legislation passed by the Congress. There was great political pressure on the President coming from both sides on this legislation. If he vetoed it, the Republicans would charge that he reneged on his campaign promise, but many advocates for the poor and for children charged that this legislation would hurt poor children.
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