BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 43|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 43
Author: Liu (D)
Amended: 9/2/11
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/12/11
AYES: Liu, Emmerson, Berryhill, Hancock, Strickland,
Wright, Yee
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price,
Runner, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
SENATE FLOOR : 39-0, 6/1/11
AYES: Alquist, Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Calderon,
Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Dutton,
Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Harman, Hernandez, Huff,
Kehoe, La Malfa, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Lowenthal, Negrete
McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio, Runner, Simitian,
Steinberg, Strickland, Vargas, Walters, Wolk, Wright,
Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not available
SUBJECT : CalFresh Employment and Training program
SOURCE : Western Center on Law and Poverty
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DIGEST : This bill seeks to make the state's CalFresh
Employment and Training program (CalFresh E&T) more
effective and equitable.
Assembly Amendments delete language requiring counties that
participate in the CalFresh E&T program to screen work
registrants for specified reasons, make corrections to
legal citations, program names, and legislative acts, and
make clarifying changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing federal law:
1. Establishes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), formerly the food stamp program,
administered by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), which imposes specified rules on
specified program participants and limits benefits based
on those rules. Generally, one group of participants,
able-bodied adults (age 18 to 49) without dependents,
known as ABAWDs, are limited to three months of food
stamp benefits within a 36-month period unless they
comply with work requirements.
2. Establishes the CalFresh E&T program, administered by
the USDA, which requires state agencies to implement an
employment and training program to assist food stamp
recipients who are able-bodied to gain skills, training,
work or experience to help them obtain employment.
Existing state law:
1. Establishes a statewide program, CalFresh, administered
by state and local agencies, that enables recipients of
aid and other low-income households to receive federal
food assistance benefits.
2. Requires the Department of Social Services, to the
extent permitted by federal law, to annually seek a
federal waiver of the existing food stamp program
limitation that stipulates that an ABAWD participant is
limited to three months of food stamps in a three-year
period unless that participant has met the work
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participation requirement.
3. Requires all eligible counties to be included in and
bound by this waiver unless a county declines to
participate in the waiver request, as specified.
This bill:
1. Requires counties to screen work registrants to
determine whether they will participate in, or be
deferred from CalFresh E&T.
2. Requires an individual to be deferred from mandatory
placement in the CalFresh E&T program if he/she
satisfies any of the federally mandated criteria, or if
he/she resides in a federally determined work surplus
area. Allows a work registrant, who is deferred, to
request to enroll in the CalFresh E&T program as a
voluntary participant.
3. Requires a county that participates in the CalFresh E&T
program to demonstrate how it is effectively using the
CalFresh E&T funds for each component that the county
offers, including, but not limited to, self-initiated
workfare, work experience or training, education, job
search, and the support services or client
reimbursements needed to participate in these
components, as allowed by federal law and guidance.
Clarifies that a county is not required to offer any
particular component.
4. Provides that a county has no duty to provide workers'
compensation coverage for the CalFresh E&T program
participants.
5. Updates the name of the Food Stamp Employment and
Training program to CalFresh E&T.
6. Expresses the intent of the Legislature to increase
meaningful opportunities for employment and training in
the CalFresh E&T program and to assist CalFresh
recipients in meeting the work requirements under the
CalFresh program.
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Prior Legislation
SB 1322 (Liu), 2009-10 Session, in its final version, was
nearly identical to SB 43. In his veto message, Governor
Schwarzenegger stated: "While I support the state's Food
Stamp Employment and Training program and the economic
benefits that federal food stamps bring to California, I am
troubled that this bill reduces county flexibility and
instead requires that they offer self-initiated workfare.
Self-initiated workfare weakens the 'work-first' message of
the program by allowing recipients to self-direct their own
volunteer work. While I wholeheartedly support volunteer
work in local
communities, it does not build the skills and work
experience that is the primary objective of this particular
program. For these reasons, I cannot support this
measure."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1. It is unknown how many able-bodied adults (age 18 to 49)
without dependents, known as ABAWDs, participants are
discontinued for failure to participate in the CalFresh
E&T program. Assuming, half of the discontinued ABAWDs
are potential CalFresh E&T participants and 25 percent
of those discontinuances are due to a failure to
participate in the CalFresh E&T program, approximately
3,000 ABAWD CalFresh recipients are being discontinued
each month for failing to participate.
2. Exempting these recipients from mandatory participation
could result in a $1.3 million increase in federal
CalFresh benefits annually, if the average
discontinuance lasts for three months. The total
administrative costs for those cases would be less than
$50,000.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/11)
Western Center on Law and Poverty (source)
AARP
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Alameda County Community Food Bank
California Association of Food Banks
California Food Policy Advocates
California Grocers Association
California Hunger Action Coalition
California Retailers Association
Catholic Charities of California United
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
County Welfare Directions Association
Hunger Action Los Angeles
JERICHO
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Regional Foodbank
Sacramento Hunger Coalition
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Western Center on Law and Poverty
(WCLP), the bill's sponsor, writes that participation in
CalFresh has almost doubled since the recession began; yet
California has the worst food stamp participation rates
according to the USDA. WCLP believes that one of the most
efficient and humane ways to address under-participation in
the program is to ensure that people who are eligible and
currently receiving CalFresh benefits can easily retain
them when they are eligible under federal law. WCLP notes
that aligning federal and local work rules associated with
the CalFresh Program and offering new ways for people to
meet these work rules will help achieve that.
WCLP points out that, during times of high unemployment,
the federal government relaxes the mandatory work rules by
allowing states to waive work requirements and time limits
for ABAWDs, because it is unfair to keep food assistance
from people who cannot meet work rules when unemployment is
high, and because communities depend on federal funds to
continue to infuse their local economies when they are
struggling through bad economic times. WCLP notes that,
over the past several years, all counties have chosen to
'opt in' to the federal ABAWD waiver, relieving its food
stamp participants of this work rule; yet 20 counties
imposed harsher sanctions on the same population of
unemployed Californians who are required to participate in
their CalFresh E&T Programs. WCLP believes that, because
work rules and accompanying sanctions are applied
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disproportionately across the state, unemployed
Californians are losing federal food benefits and going
hungry.
CTW:mw 9/6/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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