Story

On March 12, the Minnesota House Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee began hearings on three "welfare reform" bills. The first bill called for the fingerprinting of all public assistance recipients, including children. After a rather apologetic presentation by the author and overwhelmingly negative public testimony including testifmony from colleagues Deborah Schlick and Ethan Roberts, the bill was  laid on the table before a vote would have surely defeated it. The second bill was more serious. It resurrected the old idea of establishing a two-tier benefit system depending on how long a person has lived in Minnesota, with lower benefits issued for 12 months to people who had received lower benefits from their previous state of residence. This is called a durational residency requirement and has been struck down by the US Supreme Court, as a violation of any American's right to free travel among the states. The bill was defeated in the committee by a 12-7 vote.

JRLC executive director Brian Rusche gave this testimony against HF 1036 (Seifert), the residency requirement bill:

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