HBA-RBT H.B. 2702 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2702 By: Chavez Human Services 3/30/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Federal legislation in 1996 denied food stamp benefits to most legally present immigrants. Even after the recent partial restoration of federal food stamps to selected legal immigrants, 92,600 legal immigrants in Texas, more than 75 percent of those receiving food stamps prior to welfare reform, lost their benefits. A profile of legal permanent residents developed by the Texas Department of Human Services shows that almost 50 percent of legal permanent resident immigrant households contain a family member who works. National data shows that food stamps can account for as much as 20 percent of a household's income and that these benefits play an important role in lifting people out of poverty. Most of the elderly, children, and disabled legal immigrants who arrived in this county after August 22, 1996, are ineligible for food stamp benefits. H.B. 2702 improves the health and well-being of legal immigrant families in Texas and lessens the burden hunger and malnutrition place on Texas communities and health care organizations by providing food assistance for legal immigrants who are elderly, are children, or have disabilities and who are ineligible for food stamps under federal law. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Department of Human Services in SECTION 1 (Section 33.0024, Human Resources Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 33, Human Resources Code, by adding Section 33.0024, as follows: Sec. 33.0024. STATE IMMIGRANT FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. Requires the department by rule to develop and implement a state immigrant food assistance program to provide nutritional assistance to a lawfully present immigrant who meets specified criteria. Requires the state immigrant food assistance program to be administered using the same rules with respect to eligibility procedures and benefit levels that are used in administering the food stamp program under this chapter. SECTION 2. Provides that the state immigrant food assistance program required by Section 33.0024, Human Resources Code, as added by this Act, is intended to replace a similar food program providing assistance to certain immigrants ineligible for the federal food stamp program that was authorized by the Texas Board of Human Services, implemented under rules of the Texas Department of Human Services, and in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4. Emergency clause.