Speech #1140072424

I believe that there are important and innovative fixes that would provide muchneeded relief to our local governments without much cost to taxpayers. Now. this approach is a more budgetfriendly way to address this challenge. The bills provisions address four areas to reduce the burden. [ 1045 First. my bill would permit the affected jurisdictions to use the amount that they have spent to provide social services to COFA migrants toward the nonFederal portion of providing Medicaid to their local residents. The bill proposes a new formula that would increase the Federal medical assistance percentage for each of the affected jurisdictions. and this would go a long way toward alleviating the burden on affected jurisdictions by increasing the percentage assistance provided by the Federal Government for Medicaid. Secondly. the bill would categorize elementary and secondary educationaged COFA students as federally connected students and make them eligible for Impact Aid. I understand the fiscal challenges that the Impact Aid community faces. and I am committed to working with them to address the effect this bill may have on them. The bill attempts to offset this effect by increasing funding authorization and ensures that we are not taking from one group just to pay another. Thirdly. this legislation would clarify Congress intent when we extended eligibility for housing assistance programs to the COFA migrants. This bill ensures that U.S. citizens. nationals. or lawful permanent residents are not displaced and are given priority when applying for housing benefits. Lastly.