[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1498 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1498

   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat a portion of 
 welfare benefits which are contingent on employment as earned income 
   for purposes of the earned income credit, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 30, 1997

    Mrs. Mink of Hawaii (for herself, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Brown of 
   California, Mr. Clay, Mrs. Clayton, Ms. DeGette, Mr. Dellums, Mr. 
Faleomavaega, Mr. Farr of California, Mr. Foglietta, Mr. Hilliard, Ms. 
 Kilpatrick, Mr. Owens, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Rush, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Waters, 
 Ms. Woolsey, and Mr. Torres) introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat a portion of 
 welfare benefits which are contingent on employment as earned income 
   for purposes of the earned income credit, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Work for Real Wages Act''.

SEC. 2. PORTION OF WELFARE BENEFITS CONTINGENT ON EMPLOYMENT TREATED AS 
              EARNED INCOME FOR EARNED INCOME CREDIT.

    (a) In General.--Paragraph (2) of section 32(c) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (defining earned income) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(C) If--
                            ``(i) as a condition of receiving any 
                        payment or other amount under a State program 
                        funded under part A of title IV of the Social 
                        Security Act, the eligible individual is 
                        required to perform services for any person or 
                        any governmental unit (or agency or 
                        instrumentality thereof), and
                            ``(ii) such individual receives no 
                        compensation (other than such payment or other 
                        amount) for performing such services,
                then the term `earned income' includes an amount equal 
                to the product of the number of hours during the 
                taxable year that such services are performed and the 
                minimum wage rate applicable to the individual under 
                section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 
                (determined without regard to section 3(m) of such 
                Act). The preceding sentence shall also apply for 
                purposes of sections 21 and 129 (relating to dependent 
                care credit and assistance).''
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of 
this Act.
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