SB 577

Under current law, as a condition of eligibility for Wisconsin Works (W-2),

Medical Assistance (MA), or the food stamp program, a person who applies for any

of those programs must provide a declaration of citizenship or satisfactory

immigration status and may be required to provide additional verification of

citizenship or satisfactory immigration status. Current law also provides, with some

exceptions, that as a condition of eligibility for MA, Badger Care, or Senior Care an

applicant or recipient who declares himself or herself to be a U.S. citizen or national

must provide satisfactory documentary evidence that he or she is a citizen or

national. Satisfactory documentation for this purpose consists of those documents

and other forms of evidence specified under federal law.

W-2, MA, Badger Care, Senior Care, and the food stamp program are public

assistance programs that provide cash benefits and job assistance, medical care,

prescription drug-purchasing assistance, or assistance with food purchases to

low-income persons who satisfy other eligibility criteria generally relating to age,

pregnancy, or disability. W-2 is administered by the Department of Children and

Families (DCF); MA, Badger Care, Senior Care, and the food stamp program are

administered by the Department of Health Services (DHS).

This bill provides that, to the extent permitted under federal law if there are

any conflicting federal provisions, only a person who is a U.S. citizen or an alien

lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or otherwise permanently residing in

the United States under color of law, is eligible for any program that is administered

by DHS or DCF under the public assistance chapter of the statutes and that provides

services, benefits, or other assistance (public assistance program). The bill requires

that any person who applies for a public assistance program must, as a condition of

eligibility for that program, provide documentary proof of citizenship or satisfactory

immigration status. Under the bill, besides W-2 and the food stamp program, public

assistance programs include relief block grants, with which counties provide health

care services to eligible persons; the program that provides eligible persons with

assistance in establishing the paternity of a child, establishing or modifying child

support obligations, enforcing child support or maintenance (alimony) obligations,

and locating persons who owe child support or children taken by parents in violation

of court orders; the programs that provide state supplemental payments to persons

receiving federal supplemental security income; the program that pays funeral,

burial, and cemetery expenses for persons whose estates are insufficient to pay those

expenses; the program that reimburses persons infected with human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for the cost of the drug azidothymidine (AZT); and the

disease aids program that provides assistance in paying the costs of medical

treatment for eligible persons with cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, or chronic renal

(kidney) disease.

The bill requires every application for a public assistance program to include