PRESIDENT’S 2001 BUDGET WOULD RESTORE MORE BENEFITS TO IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants’ Rights Update, Vol. 14, No. 1, February 11, 2000

The Clinton administration’s final budget proposal, released on Feb. 7, 2000, includes provisions that would undo many of the restrictions on immigrants’ access to health, disability, and nutrition programs imposed by the 1996 immigration and welfare reform laws.  The proposed immigrant eligibility restorations are broader than those contained in last year’s budget proposal, all of which were ultimately rejected by Congress.

Health care for children and pregnant women.  Under current law, states are barred from using federal funds to provide Medicaid or State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) benefits to most categories of immigrants who (1) entered the U.S. after Aug. 22, 1996 (the date on which the 1996 welfare bill was enacted) and (2) have been here less than five years.  The administration’s budget proposal would give states the option to cover lawfully present pregnant women under Medicaid and lawfully present children under Medicaid and SCHIP, regardless of their date of entry.  Administration officials estimate that allowing states this option would cost the federal government $695 million over five years and provide federal health insurance to about 144,000 children and 33,000 pregnant women by FY 2005.  States that already use their own funds to provide assistance to these women and children would have state money freed up to provide health insurance to other groups of immigrants they do not presently cover.

This proposal is also contained in the much broader Fairness for Legal Immigrants Act (S.792, H.R.1399) proposed last year by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and Representative Sander Levin (D-MI) (see "'Fairness for Legal Immigrants' Bill Introduced with Bipartisan Support," Immigrants’ Rights Update, Apr. 30, 1999, p. 11).  The Fairness for Legal Immigrants Act now has 16 Senate cosponsors and 83 House cosponsors.  In addition, the provisions of the Fairness for Legal Immigrants Act restoring federal SCHIP and Medicaid eligibility to children and pregnant women are embodied in the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (S.1227), which was authored by the late Senator John Chafee (R-RI).  This bill enjoys solid bipartisan support (see "Bipartisan Legislation Introduced on Immigrant Children’s Health Care," Immigrants’ Rights Update, June 30, 1999, p. 11).

Food stamps.  Under current law, there are more restrictions on immigrants’ access to food stamps than on any other public benefit.  Hundreds of thousands of lawfully present immigrants remain ineligible, including many who have been in the U.S. for several decades.  This year’s budget proposal would restore food stamps to 210,000 "qualified" immigrants by FY 2003—far more than last year’s administration proposal—at a cost of $565 million over five years.  Specifically, the proposal would allow the following two groups of immigrants who were lawfully present in the U.S. before Aug. 22, 1996, to obtain food stamps:

• Parents of eligible children.  Currently, children who were lawfully in the U.S. on Aug. 22, 1996, qualify, but their parents do not.  As a result, these children do not benefit fully from their allotment because the household food stamp grant does not take into account their parents’ needs.  The entire family must make do with an allotment intended only for the children.  The administration proposal would ensure that food stamp grants account for all qualified family members who entered before the welfare bill passed.

• Elderly immigrants who turned 65 since Aug. 22, 1996.  Currently, immigrants are eligible if they were lawfully present and older than 65 years of age when the welfare bill passed.  The administration proposal would allow the elderly to "age-in" to eligibility once they turn 65, without regard to how old they were when the welfare bill was passed.

Although it would restore food stamps coverage to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the administration’s proposal is not as comprehensive as the Fairness for Legal Immigrants Act, which would restore food stamp eligibility to all qualified immigrants who came to the U.S. before the welfare bill passed.  Nor does the proposal match the Hunger Relief Act (S.1305, H.R.3192), which would restore coverage to all qualified immigrants regardless of their date of entry into the U.S.  The Hunger Relief Act includes a number of other improvements in nutrition programs, and it enjoys bipartisan support in both the House and Senate (see "Coalition Urges Passage of Hunger Relief Act of 1999" Immigrants’ Rights Update, Dec. 28, 1999, p. 8).

Disability and health.  Under current law, most immigrants who entered the U.S. after Aug. 22, 1996, are ineligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and, in many cases, also for Medicaid.  The budget proposal would permit qualified immigrants who entered after the welfare bill’s enactment and who become disabled after arriving in the U.S. to receive SSI (and associated Medicaid) once they have lived here for at least five years.  The administration estimates that this proposal would help 53,000 disabled immigrants by 2005, at a five-year cost of $1.2 billion.