AB 222

Wisconsin Works (W-2), Medical Assistance (MA), and the Supplemental

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program,

are public assistance programs that provide cash benefits and job assistance,

medical care, and assistance with food purchases to low-income persons who satisfy

other eligibility criteria generally relating to age, pregnancy, or disability. Each of

these programs is administered by the Department of Children and Families (DCF)

or the Department of Health Services (DHS).

Under current law, a person who applies for W-2, MA, or SNAP must, as a

condition of eligibility, 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, including BadgerCare Plus, or

the program that provides prescription drug assistance for elderly persons,

commonly known as SeniorCare, 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.

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

any conflicting federal provisions, any person who applies for a 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)

must, as a condition of eligibility for that program, provide documentary evidence of

citizenship or satisfactory immigration status. In addition to SeniorCare and MA,

including BadgerCare Plus, which have their own documentation requirement

under current law for persons who declare themselves to be citizens or nationals of

the United States, the public assistance programs to which the new requirement

under the bill applies include W-2, including the child care subsidy program known

as Wisconsin Shares; SNAP; 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; 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

a certification clause, to be completed by the welfare worker or other person