Representatives Jayapal (D-WA) and Menendez (D-NJ) Introduce “LIFT the BAR Act” to Ensure Lawfully Present Immigrants’ Access to Federal Basic Needs Programs
Jun 29, 2026
By Sarita Kelkar, NLIHC Policy Intern
On June 24, Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the “Lifting Immigrant Families Through Benefits Access Restoration Act,” or “LIFT the BAR Act” (H.R.9432). Introduced previously in the 118th Congress by Rep. Jayapal, the current iteration of the bill has been updated to respond to additional restrictions emerging from H.R.1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). The “LIFT the BAR Act” would not only eliminate the arbitrary five-year waiting period lawfully present immigrants must undergo before receiving access to healthcare, social services, and certain housing assistance programs, but also directly undo H.R.1’s targeted exclusion of many lawfully present immigrants—most of whom hold “humanitarian” statuses—from these public benefits. NLIHC, along with over 140 organizations, endorsed the bill, introduced in large part through the efforts of the Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) campaign and in alignment with over 80% of the American public who support health and social services for lawfully present immigrants.
The five-year waiting period is a harmful barrier to services stemming from the 1996 “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act,” otherwise known as PRWORA. PRWORA, one of two main pieces of legislation restricting access to federal housing and homelessness programs based on immigration status, also created a “five-year bar” that denies lawfully present immigrants—including lawfully permanent residents (LPRs, or green card holders) and other qualified immigrants—from accessing key healthcare and social service programs until after their first five years of living in the United States. Raising fear and confusion among immigrant communities, the bar goes beyond creating a chilling effect that reduces participation in essential social safety net services such as access to public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, and other means of housing assistance, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It also poses an injustice that the “LIFT the BAR Act” can help rectify, unlocking access to critical care and well-being: access that is further impeded by the OBBBA.
While lawfully present immigrants face arbitrary challenges to accessing basic needs programs under PRWORA, eventual access remained; however, under H.R.1, many lawfully present immigrants would have their eligibility taken away for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and more. Alongside this targeted restriction, the OBBBA also contained over a $1 trillion cut to these programs and anti-immigration provisions (see Memo, 7/15/25) whose rhetoric demonstrates that “legal” or “illegal” status is not the current administration’s true concern—especially when undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for federal public benefits.
Representatives Jayapal and Menendez’s “LIFT the BAR Act” serves as a vital bill that would remove harmful barriers that delay basic needs and restore access to programs for lawfully present immigrants, reversing PRWORA and H.R.1 restrictions by:
- “Restoring access to federal public benefits for lawfully present immigrants, including people with Lawful Permanent Resident status, DACA recipients, individuals granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and other federally authorized non-citizens residing in the United States”;
Restoring eligibility for food assistance and health coverage stripped in H.R.1;
“Eliminating the five-year bar for Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, TANF, and the SSI program;
Removing arbitrary barriers by ensuring that immigrants with sponsors have access to services based on the income and resources that are actually available to them, removing state authority to impose additional restrictions on qualified immigrants, and restoring flexibility for states and localities to provide benefits to immigrants with their own funds; and;
Restor[ing] flexibility for states and localities to provide benefits to immigrants with their own funds.”
Read the bill’s text here.
Read the Representatives’ press statement here.
Gain additional background on the bill through PIF’s LIFT the BAR Act campaign.
To learn more about PRWORA, explore NLIHC’s “Housing Access for Immigrant Households” from the Advocates’ Guide 2026.