Help Enact Legislation Beneficial to Women and Girls

Your voice is needed to help ensure pending legislation is enacted by the Illinois General Assembly. Please call or fax your State Representative to the Illinois House today asking her or him to vote in favor of the following bills:

HB 3446

, sponsored by Representatives Schakowsky (D) and Silva (D), does two things. First, the bill requires Illinois to adopt the Family Violence Option (FVO). Tell your Representative that you want the FVO to become law in Illinois. The FVO helps domestic violence victims and survivors move from welfare to work. The FVO allows Illinois increased flexibility in applying the requirements of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program to families affected while avoiding federal financial penalties. (Disregard the previous bill numbers associated with the FVO). Second, the bill updates the list of immigrants eligible for certain public benefits in the Illinois Public Aid Code to bring Illinois into compliance with Federal law. Tell your Representative to vote for HB 3446.

HB 3447

, sponsored by Representatives Silva (D) and Schakowsky (D), allows legal immigrants who enter the U.S. after August 22, 1996, and thus are excluded from receiving public benefits for the first five years in the U.S. by federal and state law, to receive benefits if they become victims of domestic violence in the U.S. Tell your Representative that no one should be forced to continue living in dangerous and terrifying situations because of the lack of financial means and vote for HB 3447.

HB 3386

, sponsored by Representative Pugh (D), allows TANF families to receive a $50 pass-through on each order on which child support is paid on behalf of the family (only one $50 pass-through per month is currently allowed). Also, it sets up a pilot project to allow TANF families to keep $2 of every $3 in child support paid each month on their behalf. Tell your Representative that these ideas will improve child support collections and the financial circumstances of children and vote for HB 3386.

If you need further information about any of these bills contact Wendy Pollack at 312-263-3830 ext. 238. Thanks for your support.