HB 566 – AS INTRODUCED
2005 SESSION
05/03
HOUSE BILL 566
AN ACT relative to eligibility for public benefits and drivers’ licenses.
COMMITTEE: Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs
This bill limits state and local public benefits to those who are legally in this country and requires evidence of citizenship to receive a New Hampshire driver’s license.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
05-0731
05/03
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five
AN ACT relative to eligibility for public benefits and drivers’ licenses.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Section; Public Benefit Eligibility. Amend RSA 167 by inserting after section 2-c the following new section:
167:2-d Public Benefit Eligibility.
I. Eligibility for any state or local public benefit, including assistance under this chapter or RSA 161, shall be limited to persons who are lawfully present in this country. For purposes of this section, a person is lawfully present in this county if the person is a citizen, non-citizen national, permanent resident alien, refugee, asylee, or otherwise meets the definition of a “qualified alien” under 8 U.S.C. section 1641.
II. Notwithstanding paragraph I, any person, regardless of citizenship status, shall be eligible for:
(a) Emergency medical services under medicaid.
(b) Short-term, emergency disaster relief.
(c) Public health assistance for immunizations and, if necessary, for testing and treatment of communicable diseases.
(d) Programs, services, or assistance, such as soup kitchens, crisis counseling and intervention, and short-term shelter, that deliver in-kind services at the community level; do not condition the type or amount of assistance on the individual recipient’s income or resources; and are necessary for the protection of life or safety.
III. In this section, “state or local public benefit” shall have the same meaning as “state or local public benefit” in 8 U.S. C. section 1641(c).
2 New Section; Issuance of Drivers’ Licenses; Evidence of Citizenship. Amend RSA 263 by inserting after section 5-c the following new section:
263:5-d Evidence of Citizenship. Before the department issues any license to any person under this chapter, the department shall have on file evidence of the person’s citizenship and, if the person is not a United States citizen, evidence that he or she is lawfully present in this country.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2006.