HR0579 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0579 LRB100 13755 MST 28473 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has a waiver from the federal time limit that restricts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility for non-disabled adults without minor children to three out of 36 months unless they are working at least 20 hours per week; that waiver expires on December 31, 2017; and

WHEREAS, Illinois is eligible for this waiver due to continued high labor surplus and unemployment rates; this expiration of the waiver would leave 260,000 low-income Illinoisans without the ability to purchase adequate, nutritious food; and

WHEREAS, Those 260,000 individuals are veterans struggling to find work, men and women experiencing homelessness or living with serious and persistent mental illnesses, displaced workers (coal miners), and mothers and fathers who took time away from the workforce to raise their children; these individuals face significant and often multiple barriers to working at least 20 hours per week, including very low education levels, functional illiteracy, sporadic work histories, and criminal records; and

WHEREAS, The loss of SNAP will leave these men and women without desperately needed resources; their average income is $283 per month and losing their average $132 monthly SNAP benefit will put them at risk of severe hunger; and

WHEREAS, Leaders of Illinois food banks have said that their emergency food networks cannot absorb an increase of 260,000 individuals into an already overburdened system; and

WHEREAS, It is in the State's financial interest to extend the waiver; loss of the waiver will result in no savings for the State since SNAP benefits are entirely federally funded; and

WHEREAS, Illinois would lose as much as $412 million in federal funds, damaging the State's economy and severely impacting businesses in neighborhoods where SNAP recipients are concentrated; and

WHEREAS, Organizations such as the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Heartland Alliance, the Illinois Hunger Coalition, and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law have in the past urged the continuation of the waiver; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge Governor Bruce Rauner to intervene on behalf of the 260,000 Illinois residents faced with the termination of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Rauner request a continuing waiver of the federal time limit that restricts eligibility for non-disabled adults without minor children to three out of 36 months unless they are working at least 20 hours per week; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copy of this resolution be delivered to Governor Rauner.