BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 959 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair AB 959 (Jones) - As Amended: April 12, 2011 Policy Committee: Human ServicesVote:6 - 0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: Yes Reimbursable: Yes SUMMARY This bill extends by one month the time in which county welfare departments can restore CalWORKs benefits without requiring a new application to recipients who are late in turning in their CalWORKs quarterly reports. FISCAL EFFECT 1)To the extent this legislation allows counties to avoid requiring recipients to reapply for benefits, it would result in administrative savings in both the CalWORKs and CalFresh programs. 2)This bill is unclear as to whether or not "restoring" benefits is intended to mean that recipients will be retroactively paid for the time in which they failed to report. However, requiring a discontinuance notice to be rescinded suggests that is the intent of this legislation. Therefore, for every 1,000 recipients who submit their CalWORKs quarterly reports one month late, it would cost $460,000 (TANF/GF). 3)Federal law may prohibit states from retroactively paying CalFresh (food stamps) recipients for benefits that they lost during the time in which they did not report. However, those recipients would be eligible for transitional CalFresh benefits and therefore should not see a reduction in their benefits due to a failure to report by the first of the month. COMMENTS 1)Rationale . This bill, sponsored by San Diego County, is AB 959 Page 2 intended to reduce the number of applications being processed by the county by allowing them to by-pass the reapplication process in cases where a recipient is late in filing the required quarterly reports. Under this legislation, if a recipient submits a complete quarterly report and all of the required verifications before the last day of the month during which it is due, the county is able to restore the benefits to the household without requiring a new application or interview. 2)Potential Amendments Needed . The author should work with the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services to determine whether or not the language contained in this bill is allowable under federal law. It may be that the bill needs to be amended to clarify that retroactive payments will be made for the CalWORKs program but not for the CalFresh program. 3)Chaptering Problem . AB 6 (Fuentes) repeals the section of the code that this bill seeks to amend. In addition, AB 1400 (Committee on Human Services) amends this code section. Chaptering language will eventually be necessary in all three bills. Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 319-2081