Note: Women In Government provides sample legislation as an educational resource, and does not endorse any specific piece of legislation.

To recommend sample legislation for this page, contact the Economic Security and Opportunities Policy Resource Center.
 

Affordable Housing

• Massachusetts SB 1967. Enacted in 2011. Provides for a demonstration program that creates units of supportive housing to serve the commonwealth's homeless or at-risk of homelessness, veterans, people with disabilities and elders.

• California AB 2406. Enacted in 2010. Authorizes contiguous agencies located within adjoining cities in a metropolitan statistical area to create and participate in a joint powers authority in order to pool their housing funds to pay for the direct costs of constructing, substantially rehabilitating, and preserving the affordability of housing units affordable to extremely low income persons or households. Requires that specified terms and conditions be contained in a contract between the authority and each agency.

• Virginia HB 430. Enacted in 2010. Provides for fair market value of affordable housing using income production assessment methodology. Provides additional requirements for real estate assessors. Provides that a locality's real property sales assessment ratio higher than a specified percent is prima facie proof that the locality has failed to assess at fair market value. Requires notice of a request to increase an assessment for commercial, multifamily residential, or industrial property assessments that are already being appealed.
   

Asset Building and Financial Literacy 

• Alabama SB 295. Enacted in 2011. Establishes the Individual Development Account Program. Authorizes certain persons with low income to enter into agreements developed with a fiduciary organization for the establishment of such accounts. Requires the agreements to provide for the amount of savings deposits, match fund rates, asset goals and financial literacy education classes, additional training, and financial counseling. Provides that money deposited in the account shall not be considered gross income for income tax purposes.

• Kansas SB 61. Enacted in 2011. Increases contribution to a individual development account that may be deducted from an income tax return.

• Oregon SB 817. Enacted in 2011. Creates Oregon Low Income Community Jobs Initiative. Creates tax credit for qualified equity investments in low-income community businesses. Applies to qualified equity investments made on or after a specified date.

• Virginia HB 1608. Enacted in 2011. Designates the Department of Social Services as the state agency responsible for coordinating state efforts related to supporting public agencies and charitable and community groups seeking to assist low-income Virginians in their efforts to become self-sufficient. Establishes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Fund to supplement the Department's administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. Provides for leverage of individual, corporate and charitable donations.

• Pennsylvania HB 101. Enacted in 2009. Amends the Public School Code of 1949. Provides for development of economic education and personal financial literacy programs. Establishes the Economic Education and Personal Financial Literacy Fund for private and public schools.

National Conference of State Legislatures, 50-state chart tracks pending and enacted financial literacy legislation for 2009
 

Child Welfare

• Massachusetts S.B. 2410. Enacted in 2012. Establishes a network of child and family service programs and family resource centers to provide community-based services to families with children requiring assistance, includes habitually truant, residential programs and special education, develops standards for a comprehensive and integrated network of services, requires a standard intake screening and assessment tool, includes medical and mental health needs, creates a data collection system, provides exemptions to public records.

• Utah H.B. 237. Enacted in 2012. Amends the Human Services Code, the Judiciary and Judicial Administration, and the Judicial Code, relating to child welfare, defines the term relative, amends Division of Child and Family Services caseworker training requirements, requires a caseworker to file a report explaining why a particular placement is in the child's best interest when a child is removed from the child's immediate family but not placed with kin.

• West Virginia S.B. 611. Enacted in 2012. Develops a special community-based pilot demonstration project to improve at-risk youth outcomes, requires the selection of an organization, specifies the duties of the organization, provides that goals include, but not be limited to: Identify the challenges confronting the most at-risk youth and their families and make specific recommendations to the pilot program administrators to improve the outcomes for these youths.
   

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

• Iowa S.B. 2336. Enacted in 2012. Increases appropriations from $97,839 to $195,678 to provide tax preparation assistance to low-income Iowans to expand the usage of the earned income tax credit.

• Illinois S.B. 400. Enacted in 2012. Increases EITC from 5% for 2012, to 7.5% for 2013, then to 10% of the federal tax credit after 2013.

• Connecticut S.B. 1239. Enacted in 2011. Establishes an EITC equal to 30 percent of the federal credit. State or federal EITC shall not be counted as income or resources when applying and determining eligibility for any other state or federal benefits or services based on need.
   

Home Mortgages and Foreclosures

• Delaware H.B. 59. Enacted in 2011. This bill provides for an office within the Division of Consumer Protection to identify mortgage foreclosure fraud, to reduce foreclosure, and to promote financial literacy. In addition, the office will receive calls from borrowers in default and make appropriate referrals to housing counselors or other agencies.

• Idaho H.B. 331. Enacted in 2011. This legislation requires that, along with a notice of default, the lender must provide: a notice of the potential ramifications of foreclosure; a statement that the borrower can contact the lender about potential loan modification programs; and a modification request form which the homeowner may use to request a loan modification.

• Nevada S.B. 414. Enacted in 2011. Prohibits a banking or other financial institution from unreasonably delaying a response to an offer for a short sale on real property secured by a residential mortgage loan; prohibits a banking or other financial institution from obtaining a deficiency judgment in certain circumstances; provides a penalty.

• New Jersey A.B. 359. Enacted in 2011. This bill, the "Foreclosure Rescue Fraud Prevention Act," requires foreclosure consultants and distressed property purchasers, who contract with owners of residential properties in financial distress, to adhere to certain practices in providing foreclosure prevention services to owners. The bill requires a foreclosure consultant to post a bond with the Division of Consumer Affairs prior to conducting any business in the state. In addition, the bill provides certain contract rights for owners of a financially distressed residential property, as defined in the bill, who contract with foreclosure consultants

Juvenile Justice

• California SB 1088. Enacted in 2012. Prohibits a public school from denying enrollment or readmission to a pupil solely on the basis that he or she has had contact with the juvenile justice system.

• Florida SB 404. Enacted in 2011. Provides for eligibility for transition-to-adulthood services for the youth served by the Department of Juvenile Justice who are legally in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services; requires services be a part of a plan leading to independence; provides delinquency does not disqualify foster youth from department services; provides the age for court retention of a child in transition services; creates a boarding academy for dependent or at-risk students with an outreach program.

• Illinois HB 83. Enacted in 2011. Amends the Juvenile Court Act; provides that the court may not commit a minor to the Department of Juvenile Justice unless it finds that commitment is the least restrictive alternative based on certain evidence; provides that before the court commits a minor, it shall make a finding that confinement is necessary, following a review of specified individualized factors; requires the court to find that reasonable efforts have been made to prevent or eliminate the need for the minor to be removed from the home.

Pay Disparity

• Florida H.B. 613. Introduced in 2012. Relates to employment discrimination. Creates "Helen Gordon Davis Fair Pay Protection Act"; makes legislative findings relating to equal pay for equal work for women; recognizes importance of the Department of Economic Opportunity and Florida Commission on Human Relations in ensuring fair pay; requires the Department of Economic Opportunity conduct studies and provide information to employers, labor organizations, and public concerning means available to eliminate pay disparities between men and women.

Predatory Lending/Payday Lending

• Illinois HB 3935. Enacted 2012. Amends the Consumer Installment Loan Act; provides that if any person who is not licensed under the Act makes a loan to a consumer, then the loan shall be null and void and the person who made the loan shall have no right to collect, receive, or retain any principal, interest, or charges related to the loan; amends the Payday Loan Reform Act; relates to civil collection action proceedings; relates to the Collection Agency Act; relates to brick and mortar location requirements.

• Delaware HB 289. Enacted in 2012. Limits to five the number of short-term consumer loans (sometimes called payday loans) that any one borrower may obtain in a twelve month period; changes the definition of short-term consumer loan to include loans up to a specified amount; prohibits specified activities by a licensee; provides for establishment of a database to track the number of short-term consumer loans obtained in a twelve month period; directs the Banking Commissioner to report on the prevalence and nature of payday loans.

• Texas HB 2594. Enacted in 2011. Relates to the licensing and regulation of certain credit services organizations and the regulation of certain extensions of consumer credit obtained by those organizations or with regard to which the organizations provide assistance in obtaining an extension of consumer credit in the form of a deferred presentment transaction or a motor vehicle title loan; requires compliance with the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; provides for fees; makes special provisions for military borrowers.

 Workforce Development

• North Carolina S.B. 166. Enacted in 2011. Establishes the No Adult Left Behind initiative to expand economic opportunities for working adults and achieve statewide workforce development goals; authorizes contracting with specified entities to accomplish the goals; appropriates funds for that purpose.

• Pennsylvania S.B. 552. Enacted in 2011. Amends the Workforce Development Act. Provides for industry partnerships and a grant program to fund industry clusters. Establishes the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board and provides for critical job training grants, guarantees for program quality, inmate training, performance for workforce development programs, workforce leadership grants, TANF, industry partnerships and authorizing local workforce investment boards. Relates to career pathways, high-priority occupations and targeted industry clusters.

• Rhode Island H.B. 6219. Enacted in 2011. Requires the State Board of Regents to establish and maintain a system of career and technical education that maintains ongoing connections with higher education, meets the needs of local business and industry, and promotes workforce development; requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to submit a specified report consisting of certain information, including the total number of students attending career and technical schools and the total number who have received diplomas.
   

Youth and Foster Care Transitions

• Illinois S.B. 2818. Enacted in 2012. Amends the Children and Family Services Act, changes the class of persons who qualify for scholarships and fee waivers granted by the Department of Children and Family Services to youth under care, youth who aged out of care at age 18 or older, or youth formerly under the care who have been adopted or are in a guardianship placement, limits the Department's selection of scholarship recipients to students who have earned a diploma from a public school district or from a recognized nonpublic school.

• Kentucky S.B. 213. Enacted in 2012. Relates to transitional living support for persons committed to the custody of the Commonwealth, establishes new definitions for eligible youth, transitional living support, and transition plan, establishes that a youth may choose, prior to his or her attaining the age of 19, to extend or reinstate his or her commitment to the cabinet to the age of 21 years old, establishes duties of the cabinet related to this extension or reinstatement.

• Louisiana H.B. 269. Enacted in 2012.  Relates to the education of children having no permanent address, certain abandoned children, and children in foster care, relates to the policy that allows a child who is in foster care to remain enrolled in the public school in which the child was enrolled at the time he entered foster care, allows foster children to remain enrolled in the public school for the duration of their stay in the custody of the state or until they complete the highest grade at the school.

Last updated: March 2013