The Daily Alaska empire., 1949-01-26
CEILING SET AT $90 BY
 AMENDMENT
Aliens Would Be Eligible After One Years $ Resi-
 denee in Territory
BULLETIN-The House this afternoon passed the Pension Bill as amended by vote of 23 to 1.
By BOB DeARMOND

 Amidst furry of motions, cour'- ter motions, misunderstanding ac~ cusations and the most prolonged floor detate of the present session. the House of Representatives this morning wrote a $90 ceiling on old age assistance benefits, instead of the present $60 into House Bill. The requirement. that recipients Iof old age assistance benefits be citizens of the United States was tossed out the window and the residence requirement. was lowered from five years to one.
 The vote on dropping the citizen ship requirement was Is to 9 in favor and came after sharp de- bate on the issue
 "If we knock out the present law and open the benefits to aliens. there is no incentive for them to become citizens Rep. William Egan charged. He felt that If foreigners do not care enough about the coun- try to become citizens, they should not be entitled to the same consid- eration that citizens receive.
 We are letting down the bars and lett ng ourselves in for we know not what" Rep Warren Taylor added.
 MORE FEDERAL AID In support of the proposition to drop the citizenship requirement, Representatives Amelia Gundersen and Essie R. Dale pointed out that aliens are presently cared for out iof general relief funds, which come entirely from the Territory, while the Federal government would con- tribute to the.r care under the pen sion system.
 With our Federal government spending Billions to aid and assist foreigners in other countries, there ls no reason for allowing aliens in our Territory to lie in the gutter and die" Rep. Frank Angerman asserted.
 Russell Maynard, Director of the Welfare Department, told the rep rcsentatives that about 25 aliens are presently assisted from general relief funds. In answer to a ques- ton hy Rep Taylor, Maynard said that he does not know of any aliens having died in the gutter.
 NOT REQUIRED
 Citizenship is not a requirement. for participation under the Social Se-. curity Act, Maynard told members, and 28 states have no citizenship re- quirement in their assistance pro- grams. He estimated that the Ter ritory would save S25,000 to s40,000 by bringing aliens under the pro- gram.
 Reps. Egan. F. G. Johnson, Ipa- look, Miscovich, Nolan, Owen, Ry- deen, Taylor and McCutcheon voted against eliminating the citizenship requirement..
 Rep. Jack Conright joined the nine in voting against lowering the residence requirements from five years out of the last nine" to one year.
 $175 A MONTH
 Rep. Warren Taylor offered mo- ton to change the SIS month ceiling contained in the original bill to SITS month, arousing storm of protest
 I'm not sure what these fellows are up to. but if we ask too much we won't get any" Rep. Essie R. Dale asserted. She advised sealing the maximum payments to the funds available and said that she would vote for s100 ceiling
 Rep. c. E. Almquist, one of the authors of the bill. charged that Taylor's amendment was solely for the purpose of killing the measure.
 We've let down the bars to aliens Taylor retorted. If we're going to play Santa Claus. let's not De a nickle Santa: let's put on the ong flowing whiskers and go the whole way"
 Taylor was supported by Speaker Stanley J. McCutcheon, who had turned the chair over to Rep. Jack conright during the debate on the 
 INCREASE NECESSARY
 We have been thinking too long n terms of nickles and our pio-