Summary#
SB 1189 would amend Michigan’s Social Welfare Act, which governs Family Independence Program (FIP) assistance. It would bar FIP recipients from knowingly giving the Department of Health and Human Services information or a document falsely identifying someone as a child’s biological parent, and make that a misdemeanor. The bill’s stated goal, as reflected in its title, is to prohibit this conduct.
- A recipient who violates the new prohibition could face up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Other criminal penalties for the same conduct could also apply.
- The bill puts the prohibition in both the rules for family self-sufficiency plans and the FIP penalty section.
- The supplied text also says the department must notify recipients of a penalty for knowingly identifying the wrong person as a father, or not telling the department that more than one person could be the father. The text does not show which words are new and which are existing.
- The bill would take effect 90 days after enactment, but only if SB 1188 is also enacted. It is introduced and has not become law.
What it means for you#
- FIP recipients: If the bill becomes law, you must not knowingly tell the department, or give it a document stating, that someone is a child’s biological parent when you know that person is not. The bill does not make an honest mistake a crime under this prohibition, which requires knowledge.
- FIP recipients and families: The bill does not itself set out a new application, investigation, or appeal process for these cases. It also does not clearly say whether falsely identifying someone would trigger the separate FIP benefit sanctions for not following a family self-sufficiency plan.
- Other residents: The bill does not directly change general eligibility for FIP, benefit amounts, or child-support requirements.
Money#
No public cost information is available in the supplied material.
- The bill sets a maximum criminal fine of $1,000; it does not set a new fee or specify who would receive any fine.
- It gives no estimate for enforcement, court, or other public costs.
What is unclear#
- The supplied bill text has no markup showing changes to the existing Act. The Act itself was not supplied, so the precise current-law wording and which provisions are already in force cannot be verified.
- “Biological parent” is not defined in the supplied text. It also does not explain what evidence or process would establish that someone knowingly gave false information.
- The bill does not name who would investigate or prosecute the misdemeanor, or explain how a criminal case would relate to FIP benefit sanctions.
- The bill depends on SB 1188, but no information about that bill was supplied. Whether SB 1189 could take effect is therefore unclear.
Case for#
- The bill appears intended to make clear that knowingly giving the department false parentage information is prohibited, not merely a failure to cooperate with paternity requirements.
- A possible argument for the criminal penalty is that it could deter deliberate false statements while leaving mistakes outside the prohibition’s stated knowledge requirement.
- The bill allows other criminal penalties for the same conduct, so the new misdemeanor would not replace penalties that may apply under other laws.
Case against#
- One concern is that the bill creates a criminal penalty without explaining how the department should distinguish deliberate falsehoods from errors or disputed parentage.
- The bill does not explain how the misdemeanor relates to possible loss of FIP assistance, leaving the consequences for a recipient unclear.
- The bill supplies no estimate of public enforcement or court costs, and it cannot take effect unless SB 1188 is enacted.