Legislature(1997 - 1998)
03/25/1997 03:13 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 153 - ALIENS AND ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS Number 0544 CHAIRMAN BUNDE announced the next item on the agenda was HB 153, "An Act relating to the eligibility of aliens for state public assistance and medical assistance programs affected by federal welfare reform legislation; and providing for an effective date." Number 0580 JAY LIVEY, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner, Department of Health and Social Services, stated that the administration was here to discuss this issue because when the federal government made changes to welfare reform, they also changed the status of legal immigrants with regard to federal programs as well as federal/state partner programs. Essentially the state has to address some of these eligibility changes in state statutes. Number 0615 MR. LIVEY stated that HB 153 addresses legal immigrants who our government has welcomed to live in the United States. People who are illegal, who have never been in the country legally, have never been eligible for the public assistance kinds of programs that are going to be discussed today. MR. LIVEY referred to information in a packet located in the committee file and said there is a break-down of the kinds of immigrants which are being talked about. There are about 2,100 legal immigrants enrolled in the various programs. About 1,400 of those immigrants live in Anchorage, 106 live in Fairbanks, 160 live in Kodiak. The packet lists demographics of who these individuals are. Number 0710 MR. LIVEY referred to a chart with the bottom footer labeled, "FY 98 Budget Overview" and said the programs on the left side of this chart are the five programs which are affected by either the federal or the state legislation being proposed. He explained the first two programs on the list; food stamps and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are both federal programs. The Food Stamps program is administered by the state, but all the benefits and all the rules are federal. Supplemental security income is the program of cash assistance that the federal government runs for the elderly, disabled and blind. It is all federal funds. The part of the chart that is labeled, "current law" is really the current federal law. Most legal aliens are no longer eligible for either one of those benefits. The federal law made that change and there is nothing the state can do about it. Number 0750 MR. LIVEY referred to Medicaid and the Alaska Temporary Assistance Program (ATAP) which are joint federal/state programs. These programs are state administered, but the federal government gives the state a match; money to help run those programs. For those programs, most legal aliens, under the current federal law, are barred for five years if they came into the country as of August 22, 1996. There is a state option regarding whether or not the state wants to allow legal aliens, who are already in the country as of August 22, 1996, to continue their eligibility. Number 0796 MR. LIVEY referred to Adult Pubic Assistance (APA) which is a state-only program. The state controls the eligibility for this program and HB 153 proposes a similar eligibility requirement. If a legal immigrant was in the country as of August 22, 1996, they would be eligible. August 22, 1996, is a magical date because that is when the federal welfare reform law passed. If you are in the country as of August 22, 1996, then you could receive APA if you were eligible. If you come into this country after August 22, 1996, you would be barred from APA for five years. Number 0833 MR. LIVEY referred to a page in the packet headed, "FY 97 Budgeted Expenditures," the middle chart, under "Individual Impact on Legal Immigrants" the first chart listed as, "Benefits for Blind/Disabled and Elderly." He explained what the impact of HB 153 would be to some of these people. In Alaska the eligibility for SSI is done by the Department of Education (DOE) through the Disabilities Determination Unit. They have a contract with the federal Social Security Administration to do determinations. If you are found to be disabled this means that you have a problem which prevents you from working and supporting yourself or you're blind. Before August 22, 1996, you would receive $484 under SSI, a direct federal cash grant to you. You received $70 in food stamps, $362 in APA. Adult Public Assistance is a state only program, but it piggybacks onto SSI. If you are eligible for SSI, then you automatically get this $362 benefit and are then eligible for Medicaid. MR. LIVEY referred to the far column, "Under Proposed State Legislation," and explained that if your date of arrival in the country was before or after August 22, 1996, under HB 153, you would not receive any food stamps or SSI benefits because they are both federal programs. You would still receive the $362 in APA and you would still continue to receive Medicaid. Under HB 153, which grandfathers people who were eligible as of August 22, 1996, there still is a significant loss in benefit for those blind and disabled individuals. MR. LIVEY explained that there is a similar calculation for the Alaska Temporary Assistance Program recipients. Generally, HB 153 grandfathers in all those individuals who were on ATAP, who are on Medicaid or APA as of the passage of the federal bill, August 22, 1996, and bars for five years any new immigrants from those programs. Number 0990 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked the significance of five years. Number 0995 MR. LIVEY answered that five years was just the amount of time in the federal law that these individuals were banned after August 22, 1996. Number 1002 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY clarified that we are just piggybacking onto the federal law. He asked if the federal law cuts them off right now. Number 1010 MR. LIVEY said the federal law gives a state the option to continue the Medicaid and the ATAP programs which is the old AFDC. However, because of the way the state laws are written, there is a different result. Under the state's Medicaid law, you have to actually be listed in the statute to be eligible for the benefit. In that case, Representative Vezey is correct that if the state doesn't actually write those people into the statute then even those individuals who arrive in the country prior to August 22, 1996, would no longer be eligible. For the ATAP recipients, the statute is written so that you are essentially eligible unless you are written out of the statute. The ATAP individuals would still be eligible even if this bill didn't pass. Number 1062 CHAIRMAN BUNDE clarified that it was still necessary for someone who wished to immigrate to have a sponsor. He asked if those people, grandfathered in and eligible for adult public assistance, should then be the ward of the sponsor. Number 1084 MR. LIVEY answered that a lot of those individuals had sponsors when they originally came into the country, but for one reason or another the sponsorship has ended. The new federal rules state that when the five year ban passes and when we start looking at applications again if there is a sponsor, there are some new deeming provisions in the law which will apply. Deeming provisions mean how much of the sponsor's income do you deem available to the individual in terms of eligibility. Number 1120 CHAIRMAN BUNDE stated that even though the sponsorship exists, it is really form rather than function. Number 1133 CHRIS ASHENBRENNER, Program Officer, Policy and Program Development, Division of Public Assistance, Department of Health and Social Services, said the one thing that is different about sponsor affidavits under the new law is that there are legally enforceable instruments under the new law. Under the old law, you could sponsor an immigrant into this country and when the immigrant asked for help, the sponsor could say no. Under the new law there is a legal way to get that help. Number 1170 CHAIRMAN BUNDE presented a scenario of someone who is a legal immigrant after August 22, 1996, who becomes disabled and asked if they were no longer eligible for assistance. Number 1188 MR. LIVEY answered that if they arrive in the country after August 22, 1996, and became disabled, they would essentially not be eligible for SSI ever, they would not be eligible for APA or Medicaid until after they were in the country for five years. Number 1206 CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked, in practical terms, what happens. Number 1212 MR. LIVEY answered, what happened with welfare reform was that the states got a lot of cost shifts. This is just one aspect of it, you can talk about SSI for alcoholics and drug abusers, changes in food stamps. There are other big impacts as a result of welfare reform of which this is just one. It is a huge cost shift to the states and frankly, to some degree, to the municipalities. Suzanne Goodrich of Catholic Community Services would probably say the same thing. The department has not proposed, in the Governor's budget this year, any special dollars to take care of that group of people who are coming into the country and will no longer be eligible for these programs. It may be that in a few years we will have to do that because the community resources won't be able to handle all those people. Number 1275 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked if immigrants were allowed into the country who were disabled. Number 1293 CHAIRMAN BUNDE felt that if they had refugee status they would be allowed into the United States. Number 1315 KRISTEN BOMENGEN, Assistant Attorney General, Human Services Section, Civil Division, Department of Law, said the immigration law in itself is very complex and there are a number of different categories under which people can qualify to come into the country. Some of these categories would be as asylees refugees. She was not aware of any specific prohibition that would keep someone out because they were disabled, nor would those individuals necessarily be disqualified from receiving federal SSI. There is a group of immigrants that are accepted from these rules and could, in fact, qualify for SSI benefits and states are required to provide benefits to them. Number 1347 REPRESENTATIVE DYSON asked if this bill had any enemies. Number 1350 MR. LIVEY did not believe so. Number 1365 CHAIRMAN BUNDE said there are people who would like to testify and would allow those people to testify when this bill is heard again.
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