AN ACT MAKING A SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2001.
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is forthwith to make a supplemental appropriation and to provide additional conditions on appropriations, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. To provide for supplementing certain items in the general appropriation act and other appropriation acts for fiscal year 2001, the sum set forth in section 2 is hereby appropriated from the general fund unless specifically designated otherwise herein or in said appropriation acts, for the several purposes and subject to the conditions specified herein or in said appropriation acts, and subject to the provisions of law regulating the disbursement of public funds for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001. The sum appropriated in said section 2 shall be in addition to any amounts previously appropriated and made available for the purposes of said item.
SECTION 2.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.
Department of Transitional Assistance.
4403-2120 ..............................................$4,502,389SECTION 3. Item 4403-2120 of said section 2 of chapter 159 of the acts of 2000 is hereby amended by striking out the words "provided further, that the department shall not expend more for the hotel and motel emergency assistance program in fiscal year 2001 than was expended in fiscal year 2000" and inserting in place thereof the following words:- ; provided further, that no family eligible for the hotel and motel emergency assistance program in fiscal year 2001 shall be placed, except in cases of domestic violence or when no hotel or motel placement is available, in a hotel or motel located more than 15 miles from the last permanent residence of such family; provided further, that if no hotel or motel placement is available within 15 miles of the last permanent residence of any such family, the department shall place the family in the closest possible hotel or motel available beyond the 15 miles and shall transfer the family to a hotel or motel within the 15 miles at the earliest possible date, unless the family requests otherwise; provided further, that the department shall report on a quarterly basis to the joint committee on human services and elder affairs and the house and senate committees on ways and means on the number of families placed more than 15 miles from the last permanent residences of any such families, the cities of their last permanent residences, the cities in which they were placed outside of the 15 miles, the names and addresses of all such hotels and motels more than 15 miles from the last permanent residences of any such families, the date of any solicitations of availability for placement, and the final disposition of the families after leaving the program; provided further, that the department shall report to the house and senate committees on ways and means not later than February 1, 2001 on the progress made in ensuring placements within the 15-mile restriction and eliminating the need for hotel and motel placements entirely.