CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6478

66TH LEGISLATURE

2020 REGULAR SESSION

SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6478

AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE

BySenate Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Nguyen, Darneille, Stanford, Saldaña, Dhingra, Das, and Hasegawa)

AN ACT Relating to revising economic assistance programs by updating standards of need, revising outcome measures and data collected, and reducing barriers to participation; amending RCW 74.08A.010; adding a new section to chapter 74.08A RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 74.08A.010 and 2019 c 343 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) A family that includes an adult who has received temporary assistance for needy families for sixty months after July 27, 1997, shall be ineligible for further temporary assistance for needy families assistance.

(2) For the purposes of applying the rules of this section, the department shall count any month in which an adult family member received a temporary assistance for needy families cash assistance grant unless the assistance was provided when the adult family member was a minor child and not the head of the household or married to the head of the household.

(3) The department shall adopt regulations to apply the sixty-month time limit to households in which a parent is in the home and ineligible for temporary assistance for needy families. Any regulations shall be consistent with federal funding requirements.

(4) The department shall refer recipients who require specialized assistance to appropriate department programs, crime victims' programs through the department of commerce, or the crime victims' compensation program of the department of labor and industries.

(5)(a) The department shall add to adopted rules related to temporary assistance for needy families time limit extensions, the following criteria by which the department shall exempt a recipient and the recipient's family from the application of subsection (1) of this section:

(i) By reason of hardship, including ((if the recipient is a homeless person as described in RCW 43.185C.010))when the recipient's family includes a child or youth who is without a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence as described in the federal McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act (Title 42 U.S.C., chapter 119, subchapter VI, part B) as it existed on January 1, 2020; or

(ii) If the family includes an individual who meets the family violence options of section 402(A)(7) of Title IVA of the federal social security act as amended by P.L. 104-193.

(b) Policies related to circumstances under which a recipient will be exempted from the application of subsection (1) or (3) of this section shall treat adults receiving benefits on their own behalf, and parents receiving benefits on behalf of their child similarly, unless required otherwise under federal law.

(6) The department shall not exempt a recipient and his or her family from the application of subsection (1) or (3) of this section until after the recipient has received fifty-two months of assistance under this chapter.

(7) The department shall provide transitional food assistance for a period of five months to a household that ceases to receive temporary assistance for needy families assistance and is not in sanction status. If necessary, the department shall extend the household's basic food certification until the end of the transition period.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 74.08A RCW to read as follows:

(1) Annually by December 31st, the department must report to the governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the legislature disaggregated data identifying the race of individuals whose temporary assistance for needy families benefits were reduced or terminated during the preceding year due to:

(a) Sanction as described in RCW 74.08A.260; or

(b) Reaching the sixty-month time limit under RCW 74.08A.010.

(2) If the disaggregated data for terminated or sanctioned individuals shows a disproportionate representation of any racial group that has experienced historic disparities or discrimination, the department must describe steps it is taking to address and remedy the racial disproportionality.

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