Bill Text: CA SR54 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Relative to the Maximum Family Grant rule
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-08-04 - Read. Adopted. (Ayes 25. Noes 5. Page 4298.) [SR54 Detail]
Download: California-2013-SR54-Enrolled.html
BILL NUMBER: SR 54 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
ADOPTED IN SENATE AUGUST 4, 2014
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 19, 1950
INTRODUCED BY Senators Mitchell, Beall, DeSaulnier, Jackson, Lara,
and Liu
JUNE 30, 2014
Relative to the Maximum Family Grant rule
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST
WHEREAS, Twenty years ago this week, Assembly Bill 473 (hereafter
AB 473) was passed off of the floor of the Assembly and the Senate,
and enacted into law pursuant to Chapter 196 of the Statutes of 1994,
establishing a state law that denies basic needs assistance to
children born into a poor family receiving Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC); and
WHEREAS, This child exclusion policy established by AB 473 remains
in law today and is referred to as the Maximum Family Grant (MFG)
rule; and
WHEREAS, The MFG rule denies help to poor infants and children
unless his or her parents disclose private medical information to
prove that their child was an accident, conceived as a result of
failed, state sanctioned, contraception, as defined in the law, or a
result of a rape, but only for a rape that was reported to police no
later than three months after the birth of the child; and
WHEREAS, The MFG rule and similar child exclusion rules across the
country were based on a racist stereotype about poor women who
received public help, their worthiness as individuals, their fitness
as mothers, and their motivations to become pregnant or to carry a
child to term; and
WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 473 was leveraged in budget negotiations
only after a ballot proposition that would have enacted this policy
failed by a margin of 10 percentage points; and
WHEREAS, The contents of AB 473 were deleted and amended on the
floor of the Assembly and had no public hearing; and
WHEREAS, Over 30 Assembly Members and Senators voted against this
bill; and
WHEREAS, The author's floor statement suggested that concerns
raised by the opposition were addressed by protections in AB 473,
including that it would not be operative unless federal waivers were
received; and
WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 473 provided that the implementation date
was to be the date that the Director of Social Services certified
that the administrative procedures required for the federal waiver
were complete; and
WHEREAS, Advocates at the Western Center on Law and Poverty report
that, through a public records act request, they have learned that a
final waiver was never received and the certificate was never issued
by the Director of Social Services; and
WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children program had no lifetime limit of aid, but the California
Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, which
replaced it now entitles adults to only 24 months of lifetime
assistance; and
WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the program had a benefit equal to 80
percent of the federal poverty line, now the maximum grant puts a
family at 40 percent of the federal poverty line; and
WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the MFG rule was opposed by advocates
for the poor, religious communities, and women's rights advocates;
and
WHEREAS, Today, the repeal of the MFG rule is supported by a
diverse coalition of over 80 organizations, including the California
Catholic Conference, the Coalition for Women and Children, Planned
Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, California
Partnership, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty; and
WHEREAS, Today California has the highest rate of child poverty in
the nation, with more children in poverty than any other state, and
is one of only three states that had a growth in poverty rates
between 2011 and 2012; and
WHEREAS, Twenty years of scientific research on this failed social
experiment has shown that there is no connection between child
exclusion policies and the birth rate, as supporters of the bill had
purported; and
WHEREAS, Policies like the MFG rule violate the basic principles
of international human and reproductive rights; and
WHEREAS, Child exclusion laws are known to increase childhood
poverty by an estimated 7.4 percent and deep poverty by an estimated
13.1 percent; and
WHEREAS, An increase in grant assistance of just a $1,000 annually
is estimated to improve a child's educational achievement by 5 to 6
percent; and
WHEREAS, Dozens of CalWORKs parents have testified in several
hearings during this two-year legislative session about the very
real, traumatic, and humiliating experiences their families have
suffered at the hands of the MFG rule; and
WHEREAS, The chronic stress experienced by children whose basic
needs go unmet will have life-long impacts that deny them
opportunities that all children in America should enjoy; now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That on the
20th anniversary of the passage of the bill enacting the Maximum
Family Grant (MFG) rule, the Senate proclaims that this law should be
repealed as soon as legislatively possible; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
