WASHINGTON -- Surprising even members of his own party, House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said Republicans should reconsider a controversial portion of their "Contract With America" that would deny welfare benefits to most legal immigrants.


"I think we're going to revisit the question of eliminating legal aliens from ever getting any access to government services after some length of time of being here and paying taxes," Gingrich told reporters Monday.


"I am very pro legal immigration," he said. "I think we would be a very, very self-destructive country if we sent negative signals on legal immigration."


As part of the Republicans' contract, legal immigrants would be denied access to 60 federal programs, including Medicaid, housing assistance, free childhood immunization and subsidized school lunches.


The only legal immigrants who would still receive benefits under the plan would be refugees during their first six years in the United States and legal aliens over 75 who have lived in the country for at least five years.


Republicans estimate that ending benefits to legal immigrants would save almost $22 billion over five years.


Asked if his suggestion to rethink the legal immigration issue represented a change of heart, Gingrich snapped: "It's new. It's complex. It changes over time."


His comments surprised many Republicans. One of them was Representative Clay Shaw, a key proponent of ending welfare payments for legal immigrants, and chairman of a House Ways and Means subcommittee that will hold hearings on welfare reform Friday.


"The provision is not set in stone," said Shaw's spokesman. "But philosophically, (Shaw) is not for providing welfare benefits to non-citizens."


Gingrich was forced to backtrack on another issue Monday, firing his newly appointed House historian after learning that she helped block federal funds for a school curriculum on the Holocaust because it did not adequately reflect what she called "the Nazi point of view."


Gingrich appointed Christina Jeffrey, 47, an assistant professor of political science at Kenneshaw State University in Georgia where Gingrich once taught, in mid-December, but her appointment was not officially announced and became public only a few days ago.


Reports of her involvement in the 1986 incident -- which caused a furor in Washington and prompted at least one congressional hearing -- began to surface late Monday, prompting immediate outcry from major Jewish groups and two New York legislators.


Gingrich's spokesman Tony Blankley said the speaker had left a message for Jeffrey asking for her resignation, but had not yet spoken with her directly.


Blankley said Jeffrey served on a Department of Education panel that was set up to review a curriculum entitled "Facing History and Ourselves," but the panel rejected a $70,000 grant for the program as it was not balanced or objective.


At the time Jeffrey, whose name was then Christina Price, wrote, "The program gives no evidence of balance or objectivity. The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view and is not represented," according to the Cable News Network.


Blankley said neither Gingrich nor his staff was aware of the incident because Jeffrey had married and changed her name in the interim.


A White House spokeswoman said Gingrich's move was "an appropriate step and a prudent decision."


A spokesman for the World Jewish Congress praised Gingrich for moving swiftly.