LIFT the BAR Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4170 To amend the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to provide certain benefits to noncitizens, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 15, 2023 Ms. JAYAPAL (for herself, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. BEYER, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CASAR, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. CHU, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. CORREA, Mr. CROW, Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. EVANS, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. ROBERT GARCIA of California, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. IVEY, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. KILMER, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. LIEU, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Ms. MENG, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. NAPOLI- TANO, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OMAR, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. PETERS, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. PORTER, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. SOTO, Ms. STANSBURY, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. THANEDAR, Ms. TITUS, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. TRONE, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. VEASEY, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. WIL- SON of Florida, Mr. PHILLIPS, and Mr. PASCRELL) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, the Judiciary, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 4170 IH A BILL To amend the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to provide certain benefits to noncitizens, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lifting Immigrant 4 Families Through Benefits Access Restoration Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘LIFT the BAR Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. AVAILABILITY OF BASIC ASSISTANCE TO LAWFULLY 7 PRESENT NONCITIZENS. 8 (a) ELIMINATION OF ARBITRARY ELIGIBILITY RE- 9 STRICTIONS.—Sections 402, 403, 411, 412, 421, and 422 10 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Rec- 11 onciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1612, 1613, 1621, 1622, 12 1631, and 1632) are repealed. 13 (b) NOTIFICATION AND INFORMATION REPORTING.— 14 Section 404 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Op- 15 portunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1614) is 16 amended by striking ‘‘, 402, or 403’’. 17 (c) QUALIFIED NONCITIZENS.—Title IV of the Per- 18 sonal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation 19 Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended— 20 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 4170 IH (1) in the header, by striking ‘‘ALIENS’’ and 1 inserting ‘‘NONCITIZENS’’; 2 (2) by striking ‘‘alien’’ each place it appears 3 and inserting ‘‘noncitizen’’; 4 (3) by striking ‘‘aliens’’ each place it appears 5 and inserting ‘‘noncitizens’’; 6 (4) by striking ‘‘alien’s’’ each place it appears 7 and inserting ‘‘noncitizen’s’’; 8 (5) by striking ‘‘an alien’’ each place that it ap- 9 pears and inserting ‘‘a noncitizen’’; 10 (6) by striking ‘‘alien’’ each place that it ap- 11 pears and inserting ‘‘noncitizen’’; 12 (7) by striking ‘‘qualified alien’’ each place that 13 it appears and inserting ‘‘qualified noncitizen’’; 14 (8) by striking ‘‘qualified aliens’’ each place 15 that it appears and inserting ‘‘qualified noncitizens’’; 16 (9) by striking ‘‘qualified alien’s’’ each place 17 that it appears and inserting ‘‘qualified nonciti- 18 zen’s’’; 19 (10) in section 402— 20 (A) in the header, by striking ‘‘QUALI- 21 FIED ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED 22 NONCITIZENS’’; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 4170 IH (B) in subsection (a)(2)(L), by striking 1 ‘‘QUALIFIED ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALI- 2 FIED NONCITIZENS’’; 3 (11) in section 403, in the header, by striking 4 ‘‘QUALIFIED ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED 5 NONCITIZENS’’; 6 (12) in section 411, in the header, by striking 7 ‘‘QUALIFIED ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED 8 NONCITIZENS’’; and 9 (13) in section 412, in the header, by striking 10 ‘‘QUALIFIED ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED 11 NONCITIZENS’’. 12 (d) ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES FOR LAWFULLY RE- 13 SIDING NONCITIZENS.—Section 431 of the Personal Re- 14 sponsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 15 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1641) is amended— 16 (1) in subsection (b)— 17 (A) in the header, by striking ‘‘QUALIFIED 18 ALIEN’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED NONCIT- 19 IZEN’’; 20 (B) by striking ‘‘alien’’ and inserting ‘‘non- 21 citizen’’; 22 (C) by striking ‘‘an alien’’ and inserting ‘‘a 23 noncitizen’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 4170 IH (D) by striking ‘‘benefit’’ and all that fol- 1 lows through the period at the end of the sub- 2 section and inserting ‘‘benefit, is lawfully 3 present in the United States.’’; 4 (2) in subsection (c)— 5 (A) in the header, by striking ‘‘QUALIFIED 6 ALIENS’’ and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED NONCITI- 7 ZENS’’; 8 (B) by striking ‘‘; or’’ at the end of para- 9 graph (3) and inserting ‘‘;’’; 10 (C) by striking the period at the end of 11 paragraph (4) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 12 (D) by inserting after paragraph (4): 13 ‘‘(5) a noncitizen— 14 ‘‘(A) in a category that was treated as law- 15 fully present for purposes of section 1101 of the 16 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 17 2010 (42 U.S.C. 18001); 18 ‘‘(B) who met the requirements of section 19 402(a)(2)(D) of the Personal Responsibility and 20 Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 21 (8 U.S.C. 1612(a)(2)(D)) on or before January 22 1, 2021; 23 ‘‘(C) who is granted special immigrant ju- 24 venile status as described by section 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 4170 IH 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nation- 1 ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(J)); 2 ‘‘(D) who has a pending, bona fide applica- 3 tion for nonimmigrant status under section 4 101(a)(15)(U) of the Immigration and Nation- 5 ality Act (8 U.S.C 1101(1)(15)(U)); 6 ‘‘(E) who was granted relief under the De- 7 ferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; 8 or 9 ‘‘(F) any other person who is not a citizen 10 of the United States but who resides in a State 11 or territory of the United States and is feder- 12 ally authorized to be present in the United 13 States.’’; and 14 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub- 15 section: 16 ‘‘(d) NONCITIZEN.—For the purposes of this title, the 17 term ‘noncitizen’ means any individual who is not a citizen 18 of the United States.’’. 19 (e) CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS.—Section 742 of 20 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Rec- 21 onciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1615) is amended— 22 (1) in subsection (a)— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 4170 IH (A) in the header by striking ‘‘SCHOOL 1 LUNCH AND BREAKFAST PROGRAMS’’ and in- 2 serting ‘‘CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS’’; 3 (B) by striking ‘‘the school lunch pro- 4 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘any program’’; and 5 (C) by striking ‘‘the school breakfast pro- 6 gram under section 4 of the’’ and inserting 7 ‘‘any program under’’; and 8 (2) in subsection (b)(1)— 9 (A) by striking ‘‘Nothing in this Act shall 10 prohibit or require a State to provide to an in- 11 dividual who is not a citizen or a qualified alien, 12 as defined in section 431(b),’’ and inserting ‘‘A 13 State shall not deny’’; and 14 (B) by striking ‘‘paragraph (2)’’ and in- 15 serting ‘‘paragraph (2) on the basis of an indi- 16 vidual’s citizenship or immigration status’’. 17 (f) EXCLUSION OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE EXPENDI- 18 TURES FOR CITIZENS OF FREELY ASSOCIATED STATES.— 19 Section 1108(h) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 20 1308(h)) is amended— 21 (1) by striking ‘‘Expenditures’’ and inserting: 22 ‘‘(1) Expenditures’’; and 23 (2) by adding at the end the following new 24 paragraph: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 4170 IH ‘‘(2) With respect to eligibility for benefits for 1 the designated Federal program defined in para- 2 graph (3)(C) (relating to the Medicaid program), 3 paragraph (1) shall not apply to any individual who 4 lawfully resides in 1 of the 50 States or the District 5 of Columbia in accordance with the Compacts of 6 Free Association between the Government of the 7 United States and the Governments of the Fed- 8 erated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the 9 Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau and 10 shall not apply, at the option of the Governor of 11 Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the North- 12 ern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa as commu- 13 nicated to the Secretary of Health and Human Serv- 14 ices in writing, to any individual who lawfully resides 15 in the respective territory in accordance with such 16 Compacts.’’. 17 (g) CHILD HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM.—Section 18 2107(e)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 19 1397gg(e)(1)) is amended— 20 (1) by striking subparagraph (O); and 21 (2) by redesignating subparagraphs (P), (Q), 22 (R), (S), (T), and (U) as subparagraphs (O), (P), 23 (Q), (R), (S), and (T). 24 (h) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 4170 IH (1) SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD ASSISTANCE PRO- 1 GRAM.—The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 2 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.) is amended— 3 (A) in section 5— 4 (i) by striking subsection (i); and 5 (ii) by redesignating subsections (j) 6 through (n) as subsections (i) through (m), 7 respectively; 8 (B) in section 6— 9 (i) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘an 10 alien lawfully admitted for permanent’’ and 11 all that follows through the end of the sub- 12 section and inserting ‘‘a noncitizen lawfully 13 present in the United States.’’; and 14 (ii) in subsection (s)(2), by striking 15 ‘‘(m), and (n)’’ and inserting ‘‘and (m)’’; 16 and 17 (C) in section 11(e)(2)(B)(v)(II) by strik- 18 ing ‘‘aliens’’ each place it appears and inserting 19 ‘‘noncitizens’’. 20 (2) MEDICAID.—Section 1903(v) of the Social 21 Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396b(v)) is amended— 22 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘admit- 23 ted for’’ and all that follows through the end of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 4170 IH the paragraph and inserting ‘‘present in the 1 United States.’’; and 2 (B) striking paragraph (4). 3 (3) HOUSING ASSISTANCE.—Section 214(a) of 4 the Housing and Community Development Act of 5 1980 (42 U.S.C. 1436a(a)) is amended by— 6 (A) redesignating paragraphs (6) and (7) 7 as paragraphs (7) and (8), respectively; and 8 (B) inserting after paragraph (5): 9 ‘‘(6) a qualified noncitizen as defined in section 10 431 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Oppor- 11 tunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1641);’’. 12 (4) GENERAL RULE ON NONCITIZENS’ ELIGI- 13 BILITY.—Section 401 of the Personal Responsibility 14 and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 15 U.S.C. 1611) is amended— 16 (A) in the header— 17 (i) by striking ‘‘QUALIFIED ALIENS’’ 18 and inserting ‘‘QUALIFIED NONCITI- 19 ZENS’’; and 20 (ii) by striking ‘‘ALIENS’’ and insert- 21 ing ‘‘NONCITIZENS’’; and 22 (B) by striking ‘‘alien’’ each place it ap- 23 pears and inserting ‘‘noncitizen’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 11 •HR 4170 IH (5) ASSISTANCE NOT TREATED AS DEBT AB- 1 SENT FRAUD.—Section 213A(b)(1)(A) of the Immi- 2 gration and Nationality Act is amended by striking 3 ‘‘benefit,’’ and inserting ‘‘benefit by fraud,’’. 4 (i) PRESERVING ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE.—Sec- 5 tion 36B(c)(1)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 6 is amended to read as follows: 7 ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN INDI- 8 VIDUALS LAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED 9 STATES.—If— 10 ‘‘(i) a taxpayer has a household in- 11 come which is not greater than 100 per- 12 cent of an amount equal to the poverty line 13 for a family of the size involved, 14 ‘‘(ii) the taxpayer is a non-citizen law- 15 fully present in the United States, 16 ‘‘(iii) the taxpayer is ineligible for 17 minimum essential coverage under section 18 5000A(f)(1)(A)(ii), and 19 ‘‘(iv) under the Medicaid eligibility 20 criteria for non-citizens in effect on De- 21 cember 26, 2020, the taxpayer would be 22 ineligible for such minimum essential cov- 23 erage by reason of the taxpayer’s immigra- 24 tion status, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:16 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4170.IH H4170 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 12 •HR 4170 IH the taxpayer shall, for purposes of the credit 1 under this section, be treated as an applicable 2 taxpayer with a household income which is 3 equal to 100 percent of the poverty line for a 4 family of the size involved.’’. 5 (j) FEDERAL AGENCY GUIDANCE.—Not later than 6 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, each 7 Federal agency, as applicable, shall issue guidance with 8 respect to implementing the amendments made by this 9 Act. 10 (k) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 11 this section shall take eff [Text truncated for display. 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