HB 690 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

The Citizens Support Act.

HB 690, "The Citizens Support Act," directs several state and local agencies to ensure that state-funded benefits are provided only to U.S. citizens and noncitizens legally authorized to reside in the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Commerce, Housing Finance Agency, and local housing authorities must develop plans to review eligibility criteria and verify the immigration status of applicants for various benefits, including housing, welfare, and medical assistance. State-funded institutions of higher education are required to adopt policies to verify applicants' legal residency for tuition and educational benefits. Additionally, the Division of Employment Security must implement a policy to verify legal residency for unemployment benefit applicants. These agencies are also mandated to report on their implementation progress and any federal laws that prevent them from denying benefits.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Apr 2025

Committee Review

May 2025

House Passage

May 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Apr 2, 2025 Last action May 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 2 → Edition 3 · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to shift focus from requiring state agencies to verify immigration status for all state-funded benefits to specifically targeting higher education enrollment eligibility and unemployment benefits. The changes remove broad mandates for DHHS to verify immigration status for all state-funded benefit applicants, while adding specific requirements for universities and community colleges to verify enrollment eligibility for in-state tuition and financial aid. This represents a significant narrowing of the bill's scope from comprehensive immigration verification across multiple benefit programs to targeted verification in higher education and unemployment contexts.

Scope change

The bill's scope was significantly narrowed from requiring immigration verification across all state-funded benefits to focusing specifically on higher education enrollment eligibility for in-state tuition and financial aid, plus unemployment benefits. The broad mandate for DHHS to verify immigration status for all state-funded benefit applicants was removed.

ELIGIBILITY

Removed requirements for DHHS to verify immigration status for all state-funded benefit applicants and to develop eligibility criteria ensuring noncitizens without legal permission are ineligible for state-funded benefits.

Added specific requirement for governing bodies of UNC System and NC Community College System to verify that all applicants for enrollment are legally authorized to reside in the United States for determining eligibility for in-state tuition and financial aid.

Modified the Commerce Department requirement to specifically target unemployment benefits applicants rather than all state-funded benefit applicants.

DEFINITION

Removed detailed list of specific state-funded benefits programs that were subject to immigration verification requirements.

REQUIREMENT

Changed reporting requirements to focus on the plan developed for higher education and unemployment benefit verification rather than comprehensive state-funded benefit verification.

Floor votes · House May 7, 2025

How they voted

70–42

Passed · 9 other

Total votes 121

May 7, 2025

D Democratic46

41 Nay 5

89% Nay

I Independent2

1 Nay 1

50% Nay

R Republican73

70 Yea 3

95% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 8, 2025

Committee

Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate

upper

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed 3rd Reading

lower

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

May 6, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

May 6, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Sub 2

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On State and Local Government

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Apr 3, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Judiciary 2, if favorable, State and Local Government, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Apr 2, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

3 primary · 7 co-sponsors