Need to Raise SSI Levels Gets Recognition from Assemblymembers Brown and Thurmond

One of the more dramatic and unexpected turns related to human services legislation this year in the state Capitol has been the introduction of Assembly Bill 474 by Assemblymembers Cheryl Brown and Tony Thurmond, which proposes to increase SSI payments for single people living independently from 91% to 112% of the federal poverty level.  This bill was in response to testimony of SSI recipients at Assembly hearings in which they talked about their struggles living in poverty. The bill received almost eighty letters of support and passed out of the Assembly Human Services Committee with unanimous, bipartisan support before being put on the Budget Committee’s suspense file (meaning it will be compared against the cost of other funding priorities later in the budget process to determine which bills will be moved to the floor for a vote and which ones will not).

Take Direct Action now by signing on to the SSI Petition, telling your legislators to stand behind this critical legislation.