Implementing the Alien Provisions of the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998

The following memorandum was sent to all FNS regions, directing them to alert their State agencies to the need to implement a legislative change, pending the issuance of final rules. The law restores eligibility for food stamps to certain aliens made ineligible by welfare reform legislation in 1996.

July 8, 1998

Subject: Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998

To: All Regional Administrators
Food and Nutrition Service

On June 23, 1998, the President signed Public Law 105-185, the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (AREERA). Title V of the Act contained provisions regarding reductions in funding of employment and training programs and food stamp alien eligibility provisions. We are attaching a copy of Title V for your information. We are also attaching revised sections 401 through 403 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which incorporates the changes to the alien eligibility provisions as well as an updated desk reference guide page for aliens. The funding provisions will be addressed in a separate memorandum.

This memorandum briefly describes the provisions that affect the alien eligibility provisions. Please encourage your States to begin now to plan how they will disseminate information to the public and newly eligible immigrant groups about the changes. Such plans may include notices, signs, briefings for affected immigrant groups, and press releases. Further, please continue to encourage your States to operate State-funded food stamp programs to cover immigrants not made eligible under AREERA and to consider expanding existing programs when funding is freed up as a result of the expanded food stamp eligibility for immigrants created by AREERA.

Qualified aliens, as defined in Section 431, who meet one of the following criteria may now be eligible.

• Refugees, asylees, deportees, Cubans, Haitian, and Amerasians for 7 years (instead of 5 years) after admitted or granted status;
• An alien who is receiving payments or assistance for blindness or disability, as defined in the Food Stamp Act (Section 3(r)), who was lawfully residing in the United States on August 22, 1996;
• An individual who was lawfully residing in the United States on August 22, 1996 and was 65 years of age or older at that time; and
• A child who was lawfully residing in the United States on August 22, 1996 and is now under 18 years of age.

The following aliens are eligible even if they are not qualified aliens, and they are eligible for an indefinite period of time.

• American Indians born in Canada to whom the provisions of section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1359) apply and members of an Indian tribe as defined in section 4(e) of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450(e)). (Copies of these documents are attached. This provision was intended to cover Native Americans who are entitled to cross the United States border into Canada or Mexico. It was intended to include, among others, the St. Regis Band of the Mohawk in New York State, the Micmac in Maine, the Abanaki in Vermont, and the Kickapoo in Texas.);
• An individual who is lawfully residing in the United States and was a member of a Hmong or Highland Laotian tribe at the time that the tribe rendered assistance to United States personnel by taking part in a military or rescue operation during the Vietnam era beginning August 5, 1964 and ending May 7, 1975. The spouse or unremarried surviving spouse and unmarried dependent children of such individual may also be eligible for food stamps. We will be providing verification guidance on this provision in a separate memorandum.

The alien provisions in this law are effective on November 1, 1998. State agencies must implement these provisions no later than November 1, 1998, for newly applying households. The State agency may want to suggest to aliens made eligible by AREERA that they may wish to wait to file applications for food stamp benefits until October 1, 1998, because they must be denied before then. If a household applies in October and is not eligible until November, the household should be certified for November in accordance with 7 CFR 273.10(a)(3) provided necessary verification is submitted. The current caseload shall be converted to these provisions at household request, at the time of recertification, or when the case is next reviewed, whichever occurs first. The State agency must provide restored benefits, as may be appropriate under the Food Stamp Act, back to November 1, 1998, or the date of application, whichever is later.

The State agency may convert individuals participating in a state-funded food stamp program to the federal program without making the household reapply if: (1) there is an application on file; (2) the State agency has sufficient information to determine eligibility and benefits; (3) the eligibility standards of the state-funded program are sufficiently similar to the federal program to ensure only individuals meeting Federal Food Stamp eligibility standards are converted; and (4) the household’s certification period extends beyond November 1, 1998. If the eligibility standards of the state-funded program are insufficiently similar to the Federal program, the household must file a new application. If the household’s certification period ends before November 1, 1998, the State agency should recertify the individual under the state-funded amendment program and then convert the person to the Federal program according to the provisions of this memo.

If you have any questions on the certification policy contained in this memorandum, please call Mary Patrick at 703-305-2507.

For those quality control cases that must be reviewed against the provisions of the amendment (cases which, as of the review date, have been certified, recertified, or reviewed by an eligibility worker and for which a change has been processed, sometime after November 1, 1998, or the date of implementation by the State agency, whichever is earlier) variances resulting from the implementation shall be excluded for 120 days from the required implementation date in accordance with regulations at 7 CFR 275.12(d)(2)(vii). Any quality control case reviewed against these provisions with a review date after the end of the 120 day exclusion period would no longer be held harmless from these variances. If you have any questions on the quality control procedures, please call Dave Young at 703-305-2433.

/s/

Susan Carr Gossman
Deputy Administrator
Food Stamp Program

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