CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2007
Chapter 181, Laws of 2024
68TH LEGISLATURE
2024 REGULAR SESSION
TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES—TIME LIMIT EXTENSIONS
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2024
Passed by the House March 5, 2024
  Yeas 79  Nays 17
LAURIE JINKINS

Speaker of the House of Representatives
Passed by the Senate March 1, 2024
  Yeas 27  Nays 19
DENNY HECK

President of the Senate
CERTIFICATE
I, Bernard Dean, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2007 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.
BERNARD DEAN

Chief Clerk
Chief Clerk
Approved March 19, 2024 9:47 AM
FILED
March 19, 2024
JAY INSLEE

Governor of the State of Washington
Secretary of State
State of Washington

SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2007

AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed Legislature - 2024 Regular Session
State of Washington
68th Legislature
2024 Regular Session
ByHouse Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives Peterson, Gregerson, Alvarado, Berry, Senn, Morgan, Leavitt, Reed, Ormsby, Kloba, Macri, Doglio, Bergquist, Goodman, Ortiz-Self, Santos, and Hackney)
READ FIRST TIME 02/05/24.
AN ACT Relating to expanding time limit exemptions applicable to cash assistance programs; amending RCW 74.08A.010; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 74.08A.010 and 2023 c 418 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) A family that includes an adult who has received temporary assistance for needy families for 60 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 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.
(4) 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:
(a) By reason of hardship, including when:
(i) 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;
(ii) The recipient received temporary assistance for needy families during a month on or after March 1, 2020, when Washington state's unemployment rate as published by the Washington employment security department was equal to or greater than seven percent, and the recipient is otherwise eligible for temporary assistance for needy families except that they have exceeded 60 months. The extension provided for under this subsection (4)(a)(ii) is equal to the number of months that the recipient received temporary assistance for needy families during a month on or after March 1, 2020, when the unemployment rate was equal to or greater than seven percent, and is applied sequentially to any other hardship extensions that may apply under this subsection (4) or in rule; or
(iii) Beginning July 1, 2022, the Washington state unemployment rate most recently published by the Washington employment security department is equal to or greater than seven percent; ((or))
(b) 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; or
(c) If the recipient or applicant is a parent or legal guardian to a child under the age of two who lives in the same household and qualifies for an infant, toddler, or postpartum exemption from WorkFirst activities.
(5) The department shall not exempt a recipient and his or her family from the application of subsection (1) of this section until after the recipient has received 52 months of assistance under this chapter.
(6) 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 full-family sanction status. If a member of a household has been sanctioned but the household is still receiving benefits, the remaining eligible household members may receive transitional food assistance. If necessary, the department shall extend the household's basic food certification until the end of the transition period.
(7) The department may adopt rules specifying which published employment security department unemployment rates to use for the purposes of subsection (4)(a)(ii) and (iii) of this section.
NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2024.
NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3. If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 2024, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.
Passed by the House March 5, 2024.
Passed by the Senate March 1, 2024.
Approved by the Governor March 19, 2024.
Filed in Office of Secretary of State March 19, 2024.
--- END ---