Gov. Jim Edgar said he received assurances from Senate Republican leaders Thursday that they would move, perhaps within weeks, to push back the cutoff of food and disability benefits for documented immigrants.
“Something will be done in the very near future to give us a little more time to work on this and give people some more time to obtain their citizenship,” Edgar said, after talks with GOP Senate leaders at a Republican Governors Association meeting here.
An estimated 39,000 Illinois immigrants began losing food stamp benefits on April 1 as a phaseout of their eligibility under provisions of the welfare reform law.
About 22,000 Illinois immigrants also are due on Aug. 1 to lose Supplemental Security Income benefits for the elderly poor and those disabled after entering the United States.
Edgar has joined Republican governors such as New York’s George Pataki in lobbying the GOP leadership. But congressional Republicans have been reluctant to address the cutoff because they did not want to reopen the welfare debate.
Now, however, Edgar said Republican leaders told him they were planning to attach a benefits extension to “must-pass” legislation.
Edgar would not say how long the legislation would extend the benefits or how the benefits would be funded.
While in Washington, Edgar also endorsed a proposal by Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) for $5 billion in federal aid to state and local school construction projects. Moseley-Braun’s bill generally has been opposed by congressional Republicans because of its cost.
