The New York City Council unanimously passed a heavily watered-down version of a bill Thursday that originally would have automatically enrolled residents in city benefit programs, after members raised alarms that the plan could expose immigrants’ personal data to federal scrutiny.
Instead of mandating automatic enrollment, the revised legislation, Intro. 248, directs the Department of Social Services to study whether such a system is even feasible given privacy concerns. The agency must publish its findings within 18 months of the law taking effect.
The original bill would have required the city to cross-reference tax records, social services rolls and other government data to identify and enroll eligible New Yorkers in benefit programs without requiring them to apply. Critics warned the approach could have swept undocumented immigrants into automatic enrollment and driven costs up by billions of dollars.
Council Speaker Julie Menin said protecting residents’ private information was central to the rewrite.
“There are often so many logistical challenges to getting some of these bills passed,” Menin said. “We want to make sure that we did everything to protect people’s private information.”
Menin said the changes were driven in part by concerns over the Trump administration’s expanded “public charge” policy, which took effect Sept. 18. That policy allows immigration officials to weigh an applicant’s use of government benefits when reviewing green card and certain visa applications. It does not automatically disqualify anyone, but council members said it has already chilled immigrant participation in public assistance programs.
“One thing we’re particularly concerned about was public charge, and that was a concern shared with the [Mamdani] administration,” Menin said.
The Mamdani administration, along with state Attorney General Letitia James, is currently suing the federal government over the expanded public charge rule, arguing it could scare eligible immigrants away from health care, food aid and other benefits they are legally entitled to receive.
Fair Fares Gets a Narrower Fix
Rather than a sweeping auto-enrollment mandate, the pared-down bill focuses on Fair Fares, the city’s half-price transit program for low-income residents. It directs DSS to build a streamlined sign-up process through ACCESS HRA, job centers and the SNAP program, allowing the agency to use information already submitted for food stamps or cash assistance to determine Fair Fares eligibility. Eligible SNAP and cash assistance recipients who haven’t enrolled would be notified every six months.
Councilmember Crystal Hudson, the bill’s sponsor, originally introduced the legislation to boost enrollment in Fair Fares, which has struggled to reach many of those who qualify. According to the New York City Independent Budget Office, only about 40% of the roughly 960,000 eligible New Yorkers are currently enrolled.
The scaled-back bill now heads to Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his signature. Separately, the council secured a Fair Fares expansion in the fiscal 2027 budget deal, adding $54 million on top of the $120.6 million already allocated to raise the income cap from 150% to 200% of the federal poverty level — extending eligibility to an estimated 340,000 additional New Yorkers.
Mamdani campaigned on a broader promise to make city buses entirely free, a plan the MTA has opposed, citing a price tag exceeding $1 billion that it says is unrealistic.
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