Inside Washington Welfare Reform Returning to the Back Burner?

Although recent front-page leaks suggest that PRESIDENT CLINTON will soon make good on a major campaign promise and present a welfare-reform package, he may delay any such initiative until summer and simply announce some vague "principles of welfare reform" early next year. Largely neglected by the Administration, welfare may be put off, says a White House official, because "Hillary wants a clear field for health care." But it isn't a "postponement," insists another official. "It's a matter of sequencing."