The state Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation to extend welfare benefits to low-income Georgia women once they become pregnant.
House Bill 129 is sponsored by Lawrenceville Republican state Rep. Soo Hong, who filed the bill on the behalf of Gov. Brian Kemp. During his State of the State address earlier this year, Kemp said the proposal is a way to further help low-income pregnant women.
In recent years, the Legislature approved bills that extended the amount of time low-income Georgia mothers can receive benefits under Medicaid, the public health program that provides care to the poor and disabled, from two months to one year after the birth of a child.
“This continues to build on the steps Georgia has taken to improve maternal health for low-income populations,” said state Sen. Mike Hodges, a Brunswick Republican who shepherded the bill through the Senate.
Georgia has long ranked among the worst states in the nation for maternal mortality, sometimes as the worst, and it is currently ranked in the bottom 10.
Under HB 129, low-income women could apply to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program while pregnant. Currently, those women are only eligible for TANF, commonly known as welfare, once the child is born.
To qualify now for welfare, a child must be in a home with one parent, or if two parents are in the home, one must be physically or mentally incapacitated. School-age children must be immunized and have an acceptable school attendance record. There also are income requirements. For example, a family of three must have a gross income below $784 a month.
Representatives from the Department of Human Services, which manages the distribution of TANF in the state, said they did not know how many more people would qualify for the funds. Critics of the bill say it would likely only apply to a few hundred people.
The bill is a slight change in Georgia’s policy concerning welfare — for more than a decade, the state has sought ways to reduce enrollment in the program.
In June 2022, welfare benefits were granted to 6,190 Georgia households, according to data from the Division of Family and Children Services. That’s a decrease of nearly 81% since 2006, the earliest year for which DFCS data is available, when 33,302 households received welfare benefits.
The bill now goes to the governor for his signature.
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