[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 918 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  1st Session
                                 S. 918

 To prohibit the payment of certain Federal benefits to any person not 
   lawfully present within the United States, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                June 13 (legislative day, June 5), 1995

   Mr. Exon introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the payment of certain Federal benefits to any person not 
   lawfully present within the United States, and for other purposes.
    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Illegal Alien Benefits Prohibition 
Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PAYMENT OF FEDERAL BENEFITS TO CERTAIN PERSONS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law and 
except as provided in subsection (b), Federal benefits shall not be 
paid or provided to any person who is not a person lawfully present 
within the United States.
    (b) Exceptions.--Subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to the 
following benefits:
            (1) Emergency medical services under title XIX of the 
        Social Security Act.
            (2) Short-term emergency disaster relief.
            (3) Assistance or benefits under the National School Lunch 
        Act.
            (4) Assistance or benefits under the Child Nutrition Act of 
        1966.
            (5) Public health assistance for immunizations with respect 
        to immunizable diseases and for testing and treatment for 
        communicable diseases.
    (c) Definitions.--For purposes of this Act--
            (1) Federal benefit.--The term ``Federal benefit'' means--
                    (A) the issuance of any grant, contract, loan, 
                professional license, or commercial license provided by 
                an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds 
                of the United States; and
                    (B) any retirement, welfare, Social Security, 
                health, disability, veterans benefit, public housing, 
                education, food stamps, unemployment benefit, or any 
                other similar benefit for which payments or assistance 
                are provided by an agency of the United States or by 
                appropriated funds of the United States.
            (2) Veterans benefit.--The term ``veterans benefit'' means 
        all benefits provided to veterans, their families, or survivors 
        by virtue of the service of a veteran in the Armed Forces of 
        the United States.
            (3) Person lawfully present within the united states.--The 
        term ``person lawfully present within the United States'' means 
        a person who, at the time the person applies for, receives, or 
        attempts to receive a Federal benefit, is a United States 
        citizen, a permanent resident alien, an asylee, a refugee, a 
        parolee, a national, or a national of the United States for 
        purposes of the immigration laws of the United States (as 
        defined in section 101(a)(17) of the Immigration and 
        Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(17)).

SEC. 3. STATE OBLIGATION.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a State that 
administers a program that provides a Federal benefit (described in 
section 2(c)(1)) or provides State benefits pursuant to such a program 
shall not be required to provide such benefit to a person who is not a 
person lawfully present within the United States through a State agency 
or with appropriated funds of such State.
SEC. 4. VERIFICATION OF ELIGIBILITY.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 18 months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General of the United States, after 
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall 
promulgate regulations requiring verification that a person applying 
for a Federal benefit, including a benefit described in section 2(b), 
is a person lawfully present within the United States and is eligible 
to receive such benefit. Such regulations shall, to the extent 
feasible, require that information requested and exchanged be similar 
in form and manner to information requested and exchanged under section 
1137 of the Social Security Act.
    (b) State Compliance.--Not later than 24 months after the date the 
regulations described in subsection (a) are adopted, a State that 
administers a program that provides a Federal benefit described in such 
subsection shall have in effect a verification system that complies 
with the regulations.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the purpose of 
this section.
                                 <all>