document: President Reagan warned Saturday that he will veto any welfare legislation Congress sends him that does not contain a work requirement . `` The best way to learn to work is to work , '' the president said in a Labor Day weekend radio address from his vacation ranch 20 miles north of here . Rep. Thomas J. Downey , D-N.Y. , in the Democrats ' response , said that quiring welfare recipients work may be necessary , but he said such requirements should be controlled by state and local welfare officials , not the federal government . Reagan mingled talk of welfare reform with celebration of his administration 's economic record , saying Friday 's unemployment figures showed that the jobless rate `` hovered just above the lowest it 's been in 14 years . '' The figures from the Labor Department showed unemployment of 5.6 percent , up from 5.4 percent in July and from the May figure of 5.3 per cent , which was a 14-year low . `` But there are still some Americans whom our expansion has passed by _ those caught in the welfare trap , '' he said . To deal with this , he said , his administration launched a program encouraging states to come up with their own plans to get people off the welfare rolls . `` Nearly half of the states have implemented or proposed widespread welfare reform plans that build upon some good old common sense _ that the best way to learn to work is to work , '' the president said . `` Now , Congress appears to be close to a decision about welfare reform and I have a message for them , '' he said . `` I will not accept any welfare reform bill unless it is geared to making people independent of welfare . '' A House-Senate conference committee currently has before it a Senate-passed bill that contains a work requirement and a House-approved measure that does not . `` Any bill not built around work is not true welfare reform , '' the president said . `` If Congress presents me with a bill that replaces work with welfare expansion and that places the dignity of self-sufficiency through work out of the reach of Americans on welfare , I will use my veto pen . '' Downey said that while more people than ever before are working , `` the fact is that the typical worker in America is no better off today than he or she was 10 years ago ; in fact things have gotten worse . '' The poorest 40 percent of American families , with incomes adjusted for inflation , are worse off today than they were 10 years ago ; the richest 5 percent are better off than they were a decade ago ; and 32.5 million Americans remain mired in poverty , he said . The House bill , with training and education programs as well as health and child-care benefits , would make welfare parents who work better off than those who do not , said Downey , acting chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on public assistance and unemployment compensation . `` Yes , requiring a welfare recipient to work may be necessary , but those requirements should be controlled by state and local officials who administer our welfare programs , not federal bureaucrats , '' Downey said .
extractive_keyphrases: welfare reform president reagan welfare legislation work requirement welfare programs unemployment americans