Speech #1040054433

One of the key policy problem areas the eligibility workers brought to my attention is how the term "household" is defined for determining the eligibility of individuals living together at one residence for different welfare assistance programs. One of the most egregious examples of how policy and effect conflict is the Food Stamp Program definition of "household." Assume with me for the moment that two families have the same number of family members. and the same income. Applying the "household" definition can mean a family where everyone is a legal citizen is ineligible for food stamps. while a similar family with one member. who is an illegal alien. is eligible for such assistance. Let me be more specific. Let us assume family A and family B both have a total monthly household income of $1.200. and each parent individually earns $600. Family As two working parents are both legal citizens. Family B also has two working parents. but one is an illegal alien. Under the present system. in determining eligibility. the eligibility worker looks at the household members. and finds two working parents who are legal citizens. The worker must count family As full $1.200 monthly income. Since family As total household income is more than the monthly gross income allowed for food stamp eligibility. which is $1.066 for a twoperson family. family A is ineligible. However. with family B. the eligibility worker looks at the household members. and does not count the $600 income from the illegal alien parent. Only the half of family Bs gross monthly household income earned by the legal citizen parent is counted. Family Bs gross monthly household income is only $600 a month. well under the maximum allowed. Family B. with the illegal alien. receives food stamp assistance. Although technically the illegal alien member of family B does not directly receive food stamps. it is the members presence as part of the household that allows for this incongruous and indefensible result. Why. I would ask. are we penalizing the twoparent working family whose members are legal citizens by denying eligibility for food stamp assistance. while allowing a twoparent working family with an illegal alien family member to receive assistance? Would it not be fairer to determine a familys eligibility for assistance by looking at the total income of the household rather than by who is in the household? That is whether the individual parent is illegal or a legal alien. This is a situation that must be corrected. On the other hand. the Food Stamp Program specifically requires welfare offices to report any illegal alien who tries to apply for benefits. However. there is no similar requirement for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program. Why? It makes no sense as a matter of policy. Throughout this country. people are justifiably angry about illegal aliens who have access to our Nations welfare system. We can and we ought to. at the very least. require all of our welfare assistance programs to provide information and to report illegal aliens to the Immigration Service. We have all heard from INS that there is simply not enough staff and funding available to investigate every alleged illegal alien. and that priority decisions must. by necessity. be made. But we are creating an atmosphere where those who test the welfare system feel relatively safe in attempting to defraud it. If we do not want illegal aliens to receive benefits they are not entitled to. we need to ensure adequate resources are available to prevent it from occurring. Another area of policy conflict occurs with young teenage parents. We require young teenage parents under 20 years of age to participate in education and training programs or lose their eligibility for AFDC assistance.