No Welfare for Non-Citizens Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The No Welfare for Non-Citizens Act amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. It rewrites section 401(a) to state that, notwithstanding any other law, an alien as defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act is not eligible for any federal public benefit. It repeals subsection 401(b), which currently contains exceptions. It amends the federal public benefit definition by adding cash assistance after unemployment benefit. It repeals section 431, which defines qualified alien, and repeals sections 402 and 403, which govern certain qualified alien eligibility for federal means-tested public benefits and five-year limited eligibility rules. The result is a much broader federal bar on public benefits for non-citizens than current PRWORA categories.
Who Benefits and How
Federal taxpayers may benefit from reduced federal benefit spending if fewer non-citizens remain eligible. Citizens applying for public benefits may benefit if program resources are not allocated to newly barred non-citizen applicants. Federal benefit agencies benefit from a simpler statutory rule if implementing systems can replace category-specific eligibility with a broad bar.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Non-citizens seeking federal public benefits face loss of eligibility across programs covered by the federal public benefit definition, including cash assistance. State and federal benefit agencies must update eligibility systems, notices, screening, and appeals processes. Legal aid organizations and immigrant-service providers may face more demand from people losing benefits. Health and social service providers may see uncompensated need shift to local systems.
Key Provisions
- Rewrites PRWORA section 401 to make aliens ineligible for any federal public benefit notwithstanding other law.
- Adds cash assistance to the statutory definition of federal public benefit.
- Repeals existing qualified-alien definition and related eligibility provisions.
- Requires benefit agencies to apply a broader non-citizen eligibility bar across covered federal programs.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Rewrites federal public benefit eligibility rules to make aliens as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act ineligible for any federal public benefit, adds cash assistance to the federal public benefit definition, and repeals existing PRWORA sections that define qualified aliens and preserve eligibility categories or waiting-period rules.
Key Policy Areas
Immigration, Public Benefits, Social Services
Primary Purpose
Rewrites federal public benefit eligibility rules to make aliens as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act ineligible for any federal public benefit, adds cash assistance to the federal public benefit definition, and repeals existing PRWORA sections that define qualified aliens and preserve eligibility categories or waiting-period rules.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Federal taxpayers
- Citizens applying for public benefits
- Federal benefit agencies
Identified Costs
- Non-citizens seeking federal public benefits
- State benefit agencies
- Federal benefit agencies
- Legal aid organizations
- Health and social service providers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Introduced in House
Mr. Fine introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
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