August
18, 2017
To
the Honorable Members of
The
Illinois House of Representatives,
100th
General Assembly:
Today I
return House Bill 3211 with specific recommendations for change.
This
legislation addresses eligibility for certain college students to participate
in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides
access to funds for food to eligible low-income individuals. Hunger is a very
real challenge, and for students it can lead to an inability to participate in
the very programs of study that will contribute to their future development and
career opportunities. But this legislation goes further than is necessary to
address this challenge.
One
piece of this legislation utilizes the flexibility of this federal program to
allow certain types of college students, who would normally be ineligible for
this assistance, to access the SNAP program. Generally, full-time students are
ineligible for this aid. However, this limited extension of eligibility to
those in career and technical education programs that have strong records of
placement into future employment is a reasonable way to help low-income
students stay in the programs that historically lead to less reliance on
government aid in their future. I support this part of the bill.
The
second provision goes too far. With limited resources available, the SNAP
identification and promotion process required by this legislation for adult
college students who may already have a variety of resources available to
identify their eligibility for government aid is not the highest and best use
of these agencies’ efforts.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(e) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return House Bill 3211 entitled “AN ACT concerning public aid”, with the
following specific recommendations for change:
By replacing line 9 on
page 1 through line 12 on page 2 with: “(a) (blank).”
With
this change, House Bill 3211 will have my approval. I respectfully request your
concurrence.
Sincerely,
Bruce
Rauner
GOVERNOR
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