A broad-based welfare reform program, proposed in 1974 by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, is compared to the current Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Food Stamp programs. The proposal is termed ABLE (Allowance for Basic Living Expenses). The study finds that the primary impact of ABLE would be to increase substantially the number of welfare-eligible families without changing the distribution of eligible families among regions or urban and rural areas. However, there would be a substantial reduction in benefits to eligible families in the Northeast and to a lesser extent in the North Central region and the West. Eligible southern families would gain substantially. Metropolitan areas would lose benefits under ABLE, but rural areas, except in the Northeast, would gain.