Marking the launch of "Healthy Solutions for America's Hardworking Families," a bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced a slate of bills intended to continue the restoration of benefits cut off from immigrants by the 1996 welfare law. The initiative encompasses three legislative proposals that address access to health care, nutrition, and domestic violence victims' access to crucial safety net programs. Immigrants' rights advocates believe that grouping the bills under a single banner will focus attention on immigrants as new Americans who contribute greatly to the nation's prosperity and who therefore deserve the same basic health and nutrition services as others.

"Healthy Solutions for America's Hardworking Families" addresses some of the most egregious barriers to immigrants' access to the safety net: those that deny federal health care to certain lawfully present children and pregnant women; those that deny food stamps to many qualified immigrant families; and those that deny the services that domestic violence victims need to recover from the abuse they have suffered. The package of bills will include the following:

Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act of 2001. If passed, the Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act would allow states the option of extending health care coverage to pregnant women and children under Medicaid and/or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Senate bill, S. 582, is sponsored by Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and John McCain (R-AZ). Senators Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Sue Collins (R-ME), James Jeffords (R-VT), Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Patty Murray (D-WA) have signed on as original cosponsors. The identical House bill, H.R. 1143, has been introduced by Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA). The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Mark Foley (R-FL), Ben Gillman (R-NY), Gene Green (D-TX), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Peter King (R-NY), Sander Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Connie Morella (R-MD), Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA).

Nutrition Assistance for Working Families and Seniors Act. The Nutrition Assistance for Working Families and Seniors Act would restore food stamp eligibility to all lawfully present immigrants and make a number of other improvements in the Food Stamp Program. The Senate bill, S. 583, has been introduced by Senators Kennedy, Jeffords, and Chafee. A companion House bill is also in the works and should be introduced shortly.

Women Immigrants' Safe Harbor Act (WISH). WISH would eliminate barriers restricting lawfully present immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence from participating in crucial safety net programs, including Medicaid, food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income. Although the details are still being worked out, Reps. Sandy Levin (D-MI) and Connie Morella (R-MD) are planning to introduce this legislation in the very near future.

The proposed changes do not fully address the problems brought about by the restrictions on immigrants' access to safety net services, but they do move the nation closer to fairness and a sensible policy.

Immigrants' rights advocates from key states are planning a number of events in the coming days and weeks to highlight the introduction of these important bills. In addition, the rollout of the legislation coincided with the release of a report on immigrants' wellbeing from the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based policy research institute. The report contains findings that children in immigrant families are less able to meet basic needs such as food, housing, and health care than their counterparts in native-born households. The study verifies what immigrants' rights advocates have been contending for years: that the 1996 legislation has had a profoundly negative impact on the health of immigrants and their families.

In addition, a recent report by the Kaiser Commission rebuts the assertion made by some anti-immigration groups that immigration is responsible for the rise in the rate of the uninsured in recent years. In fact, the report finds that the exact opposite is true: although immigrants are more likely to be uninsured than the general population, the largest growth in the uninsured in recent years has occurred among native-born citizens.

Hopes for passage of benefits restoration legislation this year have been buoyed by recent expressions of renewed support from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and new support from the National Governor's Association (NGA). The NGA voted to incorporate a provision giving states the option to provide Medicaid and SCHIP to all lawfully present immigrants and pregnant women in their winter policy statement. The vote represents the first instance in four years that the NGA has officially supported benefits restoration for immigrants. The NCSL has included immigrant benefits restoration among its FY 2002 budget priorities.

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