The legislation by Democratic Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes would remove the fingerprinting requirement for recipients of food stamps and welfare.  He says California is one of only three states with the rule.  Fuentes says removing it would mean an additional 850 million dollars in federal benefits:

Fuentes: "AB 6 could serve as a massive economic stimulus package for California. We know that every dollar received is leveraged to the tune of a dollar seventy two and that is good economic activity."

Republicans argue that the fingerprinting is critical to prevent fraud.  GOP Assemblyman Brian Jones:

Jones: "and now we're going to open the floodgates to overrun this system with fraud and abuse and people are going to take advantage of this system that are going to deny these benefits to the children and families that deserve it the most."