law replaced a guaranteed welfare check with new work requirements. It also ended most legal immigrants' access to welfare benefits, at least until they have been in the United States for five years. The aid includes food stamps, cash assistance and subsidized medical care. Illegal immigrants have never qualified, except in emergencies; refugees generally get assistance. Supporters at the time said the move would save the government billions of dollars; opponents said it stripped benefits from 900,000 people.
             Since 1996, Congress has restored various benefits, mainly to children, abused women, older people and the disabled. Democrats and their supporters want the rewrite to at least give states the option of using federal funds to provide all legal immigrants with cash welfare assistance.
             Leaders of both chambers began advancing their welfare agendas the week of April 29. House Republicans prepared their main welfare legislation for a floor debate, moving pieces of it through the Ways and Means Committee (HR 4090) and the Education and the Workforce Committee (HR 4092) on party-line votes. Senate Democrats outlined their plans for legislation but held off on actually introducing anything.
             "One of the meanest features of the House bill that we couldn't get rid of in '96 was the way that legal immigrants, people who are working and paying taxes, were treated," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-
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