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90_SR0083enr 90SR0083 Enrolled 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 2 NINETIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 3 SENATE 4 Senate Resolution No. 83 5 Offered by Senators Syverson, Radogno, Karpiel, 6 T. Walsh, Parker, Burzynski, Myers, Petka, 7 Fitzgerald and Rauschenberger 8 WHEREAS, The federal government enacted the Personal 9 Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 10 1996 (P.L. 104-193) which made sweeping changes to the 11 nation's welfare system; and 12 WHEREAS, The federal law emphasizes temporary 13 assistance to needy families, places time-limits on 14 assistance, promotes self-sufficiency and requires and 15 rewards work achievement; and 16 WHEREAS, The federal welfare reform bill ended 17 federal food stamps benefits and Supplemental Security Income 18 (SSI) benefits for an estimated 1.2 million non-citizen 19 residents nationwide who had previously before been eligible 20 for those benefits and most immigrant families live in six 21 states - Illinois, Florida, California, New Jersey, New York 22 and Texas; and 23 WHEREAS, Congress projected that the passage of the 24 federal welfare bill would save the federal government $53.4 25 Billion; and 26 WHEREAS, Forty-four percent of that savings comes 27 from denying federal food stamp and SSI benefits to 28 non-citizen residents; and 29 WHEREAS, The federal government is block granting 30 welfare dollars to the states and requiring states to design 31 their own welfare system; and 32 WHEREAS, The federal government pushed their 33 responsibility for 1.2 million legal non-citizen residents 90SR0083 Enrolled -2- 1 onto the already overburdened and financially strapped state 2 welfare systems; and 3 WHEREAS, It is projected that 33,000 non-citizen 4 residents in Illinois will lose federal SSI and food stamp 5 benefits as a result of the enactment of P.L. 104-193; and 6 WHEREAS, The federal government has not allocated any 7 additional funds to the states to help the states alleviate 8 the burden caused by the federal welfare cuts; and 9 WHEREAS, Illinois is already spending $111.5 million 10 to provide Temporary Assistance Needy Families and Medicaid 11 benefits to federally qualified non-citizens; and 12 WHEREAS, The United States Congress is currently 13 drafting a budget proposal for the next Fiscal Year and in 14 that budget proposal Congress had indicated only a minimal 15 interest in providing essential funding for legal 16 non-citizens; and 17 WHEREAS, The federal government must be held 18 accountable for their actions taken to eliminate federal food 19 stamp and SSI benefits to 33,000 Illinois immigrants; 20 therefore, be it 21 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETIETH GENERAL 22 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Illinois State 23 Senate strongly urges the United States Congress and the 24 President of the United States to immediately restore federal 25 funding and eligibility for Supplemental Security Income and 26 food stamp benefits for legal non-citizen residents; and be 27 it further 28 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be 29 immediately forwarded to the members of the Illinois 30 Congressional Delegation, the Speaker of the United States 31 House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United 90SR0083 Enrolled -3- 1 States Senate, and the President of the United States. 2 Adopted by the Senate, June 1, 1997.