Dianne Feinstein: “This bill as drafted would remove from SSI, from AFDC, and from Medicaid, everyone legally in this country that happens…”

“This bill as drafted would remove from SSI, from AFDC, and from Medicaid, everyone legally in this country that happens to be a newcomer. It is retroactive in that respect. The amendment that Senator Boxer and I put forward would make this prospective. Every newcomer coming into the country after September 1 would not be able to count on any welfare benefits until they became a citizen, which generally takes about 5 years. This is a huge item. In my State alone, it would affect more than 1 million people. Thousands of them are refugees. They have no sponsors. They are aged, they are blind, they are disabled, they are children. This would immediately throw them off of whatever assistance they have, with no other recourse. Los Angeles County alone estimates the cost is $500 million.”