Senate Resolution No. 54

Introduced by Senators Mitchell, Beall, DeSaulnier, Jackson, and Liu

(Coauthor: Senator Lara)

June 30, 2014

Senate Resolution No. 54—Relative to the Maximum Family Grant rule.

WHEREAS, Twenty years ago this week, Assembly Bill 473
(hereafter AB 473) was passed off of the floor of the Assembly
and the Senate, and enacted into law pursuant to Chapter 196 of
the Statutes of 1994, establishing a state law that denies basic needs
assistance to children born into a poor family receiving Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); and

WHEREAS, This child exclusion policy established by AB 473
remains in law today and is referred to as the Maximum Family
Grant (MFG) rule; and

WHEREAS, The MFG rule denies help to poor infants and
children unless his or her parents disclose private medical
information to prove that their child was an accident, conceived
as a result of failed, state sanctioned, contraception, as defined in
the law, or a result of a rape, but only for a rape that was reported
to police no later than 3 months after the birth of the child; and

WHEREAS, The MFG rule and similar child exclusion rules
across the country were based on a racist stereotype about poor
women who received public help, their worthiness as individuals,
their fitness as mothers, and their motivations to become pregnant
or to carry a child to term; and

WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 473 was leveraged in budget
negotiations only after a ballot proposition that would have enacted
this policy failed by a margin of 10 percentage points; and

WHEREAS, The contents of AB 473 were deleted and amended
on the floor of the Assembly and had no public hearing; and

WHEREAS, Over 30 Assembly Members and Senators voted
against this bill; and

WHEREAS, The author’s floor statement suggested that
concerns raised by the opposition were addressed by protections
in AB 473, including that it would not be operative unless federal
waivers were received; and

WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 473 provided that the
implementation date was to be the date that the Director of Social
Services certified that the administrative procedures required for
the federal waiver were complete; and

WHEREAS, Advocates at the Western Center on Law and
Poverty report that, through a public records act request, they have
learned that a final waiver was never received and the certificate
was never issued by the Director of Social Services; and

WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the Aid to Families with
Dependent Children Program had no lifetime limit of aid, but the
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
(CalWORKs) program, which replaced it now entitles adults to
only 24 months of lifetime assistance; and

WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the program had a benefit equal
to 80% of the federal poverty line, now the maximum grant puts
a family at 40% of the federal poverty line; and

WHEREAS, Twenty years ago, the MFG rule was opposed by
advocates for the poor, religious communities, and women’s rights
advocates; and

WHEREAS, Today, the repeal of the MFG rule is supported by
a diverse coalition of over 80 organizations, including the
California Catholic Conference, the Coalition for Women and
Children, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union,
California Partnership, and the Western Center on Law and
Poverty; and

WHEREAS, Today California has the highest rate of child
poverty in the nation, with more children in poverty than any other
state, and is one of only three states that had a growth in poverty
rates between 2011 and 2012; and

WHEREAS, Twenty years of scientific research on this failed
social experiment has shown that there is no connection between
child exclusion policies and the birth rate, as supporters of the bill
had purported; and

WHEREAS, Policies like the MFG rule violate the basic
principles of international human and reproductive rights; and

WHEREAS, Child exclusion laws are known to increase
childhood poverty by an estimated 7.4 percent and deep poverty
by an estimated 13.1 percent; and

WHEREAS, An increase in grant assistance of just a $1,000
annually is estimated to improve a child’s educational achievement
by 5 to 6 percent; and

WHEREAS, Dozens of CalWORKs parents have testified in
several hearings during this 2-year legislative session about the
very real, traumatic, and humiliating experiences their families
have suffered at the hands of the MFG rule; and

WHEREAS, The chronic stress experienced by children whose
basic needs go unmet will have life-long impacts that deny them
opportunities that all children in America should enjoy; now,
therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That on the
20th anniversary of the passage of the bill enacting the Maximum
Family Grant (MFG) rule, the Senate proclaims that this law should
be repealed as soon as legislatively possible; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.