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Kansas Enacts Controversial New Welfare Rules

(Photo by Jim McLean, KHI News Service)
(Photo by Jim McLean, KHI News Service)

Governor Sam Brownback today (THUR) signed what his administration is touting as the “most comprehensive welfare reform bill” in the nation. The controversial measure reduces the amount of time poor Kansans can receive cash assistance over their lifetimes.  It restricts how they can use their benefits. And it limits the amount of cash they can withdraw with their benefit cards to $25 a day. Critics say many of the law’s provisions are counterproductive and punitive. But Department of Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore says they will motivate recipients to get busy finding a job. 


Gilmore says Kansas taxpayers aren’t obligated to help Kansans who “refuse to work.”

Jim McLean, Executive Editor of KHI News Service, oversees the KHI News Service. From 2005 until 2013, McLean coordinated all communications activities at KHI as Vice President for Public Affairs. The position he now occupies was created as part of a strategic initiative to solidify the editorial and operational independence of the KHI News Service. Prior to coming to KHI, McLean had a distinguished career as a journalist, serving as the news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and a managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal. During his more than 20 years in Kansas journalism, McLean won numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 1997, McLean and two Capital-Journal colleagues received the Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise Award from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism for a series of stories on the state’s business climate. McLean holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University.