Report Title:

Food Assistance Program

Description:

Establishes a state-funded food assistance program for income-qualified immigrant children and immigrants 65 years-of-age and older ineligible under federal law for food stamps. Appropriates funds.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2226

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to human services.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that thirty-one million people including twelve million children in the United States do not always have access to enough food to meet basic needs, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's analysis of the Census Bureau's annual food security survey. One form of assistance is food stamps. Many individuals are denied access to food stamps because they are not United States citizens. In addition, only thirty-eight per cent of citizen children living with immigrant families are receiving the food stamp benefits for which they are eligible.

The legislature further finds that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 made most non-citizens ineligible for food stamps. In 1998, Congress partially restored food stamps to select groups of immigrants under the provisions of the Agriculture Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act. Immigrants remaining ineligible for foods stamps are children who entered the United States after August 22, 1996, adults aged eighteen to sixty-four, immigrants who entered the United States after August 22, 1996, and became disabled or reached the age of sixty-five, and refugees after seven years of residence.

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, many of Hawaii's immigrants who work in the tourist, travel, and related industries have become either unemployed or were forced to reduce their work hours. Ineligible for food stamps, many of these families face insurmountable burdens as they struggle to maintain their homes and provide for their families. A state-funded food assistance program would alleviate hunger and reduce despair in the immigrant community.

The purpose of this Act is to restore eligibility to food stamps for qualified immigrant children, disabled immigrants, and immigrants age sixty-five or older, and to establish eligibility for food stamps for citizens of the Compact States of Free Association.

SECTION 2. Chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§346- Food assistance program. (a) There is established within the department of human services the food assistance program to assist an immigrant lawfully residing in the state who:

(1) Is not eligible for assistance under 8 U.S.C. section 1612, but otherwise meets all eligibility requirements of the department's food stamp program; and

(2) Meets one of the following criteria:

(A) Is a legal permanent resident under the age of eighteen who entered the United States after August 22, 1996;

(B) Is a legal permanent resident age sixty-five or older who entered the United States after August 22, 1996;

(C) Is a disabled legal permanent resident as defined by the department who entered the United States after August 22, 1996; or

(D) Is a citizen of a member country of the Compacts of Free Association, including Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands, who is ineligible for food stamps because of the eligibility rules imposed by Title XXI of the Social Security Act in the Federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

(b) The department shall administer the food assistance program using the same rules with respect to eligibility procedures and benefit levels that are used in administering the food stamp program.

(c) The director of human services shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 necessary for the purposes of this section."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2002-2003 for the food assistance program.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval; provided that section 3 shall take effect on July 1, 2002.

INTRODUCED BY:

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