[ Search ] [ Legislation ]
[ Home ] [ Back ] [ Bottom ]
91_HR0754
LRB9113784MWmb
1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3 NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
4 we urge the Department of Human Services to contract with one
5 or more universities or other established social research
6 organizations for a study of the level of the monthly cash
7 assistance provided to families under Article IV of the
8 Illinois Public Aid Code (TANF), the impact of that level on
9 the well-being of those families, and the accomplishment of
10 the aims of the program established under Article IV of the
11 Illinois Public Aid Code; the study should be included in a
12 report to the Governor and the General Assembly, and that
13 report should also be made public; the study shall be
14 conducted in the year 2000 and the report shall be due on
15 October 1, 2000; and be it further
16 RESOLVED, That the study shall include, at a minimum, (1)
17 the maximum grant levels for the family sizes, family
18 compositions, and geographic groupings in effect at the time
19 of the study, expressed in dollars and, after including a
20 reasonable average amount of food stamps received by
21 recipient families, as percentages of the then-applicable
22 federal poverty levels for the corresponding family sizes;
23 (2) the levels of the maximum cash grants for the family
24 sizes, family compositions, and geographic groupings under
25 the Department's cash grant system if they had kept pace with
26 the Consumer Price Index since 1990; (3) the levels of the
27 maximum cash grants for the family sizes, family
28 compositions, and geographic groupings under the Department's
29 cash grant system if they had kept pace with the Consumer
30 Price Index since the previous increase in monthly grant
31 levels; (4) the impact of the level of the monthly cash
32 assistance on the ability of recipient families to engage in
33 education or training and move into the work force, and the
-2- LRB9113784MWmb
1 ability of recipient families to meet subsistence needs for
2 food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and transportation; and
3 (5) incidence among recipient families, and a comparison of
4 that with incidence among the general public, of evictions,
5 homelessness, and overcrowding; utility shutoffs; hunger; use
6 of emergency services such as shelters and food pantries;
7 transferring between schools, poor school attendance, and
8 dropping out of school; and investigations for abuse or
9 neglect, or temporary or permanent State custody of children
10 in the recipient family by the Illinois child welfare system;
11 and be it further
12 RESOLVED, That we urge the Family Self Sufficiency
13 Advisory Council or successor advisory body to advise the
14 Department on additional criteria to be included in the study
15 and on the form and additional content of the report; the
16 Department shall require the study to be based upon diligent
17 research of existing research, data, and literature to
18 acquire the best possible information regarding the study
19 criteria; the Department shall make its own data bases
20 available to the researchers; the Department need not fund
21 new or original social science research for the required
22 study, but the Department may pay for the extraction of
23 reports from existing social science data bases if doing so
24 is necessary to produce the most complete information for the
25 study criteria; and be it further
26 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
27 delivered to the Secretary of Human Services and the Family
28 Self Sufficiency Advisory Council.