Bill Text: CA AJR35 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: cash-out policy.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 48-23-1)
Status: (Passed) 2016-08-16 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 113, Statutes of 2016. [AJR35 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AJR35-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AJR 35 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 113
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 16, 2016
ADOPTED IN SENATE AUGUST 11, 2016
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Brown
(Principal coauthor: Senator Liu)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Hadley, Levine, Lopez, Achadjian,
Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough,
Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Low, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Rendon,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wilk, Williams, and Wood)
MARCH 17, 2016
Relative to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 35, Brown. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: cash-out
policy.
This measure would request the federal government to change
federal policy in order to allow California to equitably end the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cash-out policy,
administered through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and the
State Supplementary Payment (SSP) programs, in a way that would
maximize benefits to, and participation among, newly eligible
individuals and mitigate or eliminate harm to low-income families and
the approximately 60,000 medically needy children who could be made
ineligible for certain benefits under a program without the cash-out
policy.
WHEREAS, The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, offers nutrition
assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and
families and provides economic benefits to communities. Nevertheless,
many low-income seniors and people with disabilities in California,
who have difficulties obtaining sufficient food, cannot receive
assistance through SNAP; and
WHEREAS, SNAP, known as CalFresh in California, supports millions
of low-income Californians who meet income, resource, and other
tests. This program provides monthly benefits through an electronic
benefit transfer (EBT) card, analogous to a debit card, that can be
used to purchase food; and
WHEREAS, SNAP benefits, which are available to most households
living with incomes at, or below, 130 percent of the federal poverty
level, are provided on a sliding scale based on income, household
size, and certain household expenses; and
WHEREAS, The federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program
provides income support to the elderly, blind, or disabled who meet
income, resource, and other tests, and the State Supplementary
Payment (SSP) program supplements SSI benefits; and
WHEREAS, The estimated average in supplemental nutrition
assistance for an SSI/SSP recipient is $135 per month, but 1.3
million SSI/SSP recipients in California are ineligible for SNAP due
to a policy known as cash-out; and
WHEREAS, California's cash-out policy was established in 1974,
when the federal government began the combined federal-state SSI/SSP
program. Under the cash-out policy, California chose the option of
cashing out SNAP benefits to SSI/SSP recipients by including the
estimated value of SNAP benefits, approximately $10 per month in
California as set in 1974, within SSI/SSP benefits; and
WHEREAS, By adding the $10 amount into existing SSI/SSP payments,
California reduced state administrative and other expenditures
associated with the high costs of delivering a small amount of
CalFresh benefits to each SSI/SSP recipient on a monthly basis. The
incorporation of the SNAP benefit into the SSI/SSP payment prevented
SSI/SSP recipients in California from being eligible for SNAP; and
WHEREAS, California is the only state in which SSI/SSP recipients
are ineligible for SNAP under this policy; and
WHEREAS, In 1974, many elderly, blind, or disabled SSI/SSP
participants were only eligible for minimal SNAP benefit amounts, and
the combined SSI and SSP income received by participants was high
enough that it limited the amount of SNAP benefits for which SSI/SSP
recipients were eligible; and
WHEREAS, California's SSI/SSP recipients are now living much
closer to, or below, the federal poverty level than they were when
the program began. In 1980, for example, an SSI/SSP benefit put a
recipient's income threshold at 128 percent of the federal poverty
level. In 2016, an SSI/SSP benefit put a recipient's income threshold
at about 91 percent of the federal poverty level; and
WHEREAS, Over the years, California's SSI/SSP benefits have risen
and fallen, and the annual, automatic cost-of-living adjustment
(COLA) for SSI/SSP was repealed in California in 2009; and
WHEREAS, SSI/SSP recipients in California, on average, would be
eligible for far more CalFresh benefits today than the $10 monthly
amount that they have been receiving since 1974 as food assistance in
their SSI/SSP checks; and
WHEREAS, Technology has advanced to a point where electronic
benefits could be made available to an SSI/SSP recipient if the state
developed a method of activating an EBT card by asking questions
telephonically, or through other efficient means, to determine if the
automatically calculated benefits are correct; and
WHEREAS, California's cash-out policy hurts many low-income
seniors and people with disabilities. Continuing the cash-out policy
at this time poses many significant risks to these individuals'
health and well-being; and
WHEREAS, California's cash-out policy benefits some mixed SSI/SSP
households, where some members of the household receive SSI/SSP
benefits and other members do not, resulting in greater CalFresh
benefits overall for the household. California could provide mixed
SSI/SSP households with alternative benefits to replace the reduced
or eliminated CalFresh benefits resulting from an end to the cash-out
policy; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California
requests the federal government to change federal policy in order to
allow California to equitably end the SNAP cash-out policy in a way
that would maximize benefits to, and participation among, newly
eligible individuals and mitigate or eliminate harm to low-income
families and the approximately 60,000 medically needy children who
could be made ineligible for certain benefits under a program without
the cash-out policy; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the
author for appropriate distribution.
