PARRIS N. GLENDENING, Governor                             Ch. 351

(2)     Family planning counseling and services may not be offered or
conducted in a manner that:

(i) Will have a coercive effect on the recipient; or

(ii) Will violate the recipient's bona fide religious beliefs and practices
or confidentiality.

(3)     The Department and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
shall provide family planning referrals at the offices of local departments of social
services.

(i) The Secretary shall revise the schedule of program assistance to allow, once
eligibility for a recipient is otherwise established, that the recipient will not lose eligibility
solely because one or more wage earners in the family unit works more than 100 hours per
month.

(j) The Secretary shall revise the rules of eligibility to permit two-parent families
to be exempt from the requirement that the principal wage earner must have worked for
a specified time prior to applying for AFDC.

(k) The Secretary shall revise the schedule of program assistance so that:

(1)     Countable earned income under the AFDC Program is subtracted from
the sum of full State AFDC standard of need specified in the regulations related to the
Maryland standards of need for AFDC and AFDC-UP and allowable amounts to be paid
based on available funds; and

(2)     The amount of assistance given under this subtitle is equal to the lesser
of:

(i) 85% of the deficit between the full AFDC standard of need
specified in the regulations referred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection and a
recipient's countable income; or

(ii) The maximum payment specified in the regulations referred to in
paragraph (1) of this subsection made to a family of the same size without any income.

(1) (1) The Secretary shall revise the rules of eligibility to permit a child who is
living with the child's natural parent and a stepparent in a household in which the
household income exceeds the State eligibility standard for assistance to be eligible to
receive assistance if:

(i) The requirements of § 48 of this subtitle are met;

(ii) Based upon the income of the natural parent and that parent's
children, the natural parent and the child would be eligible for assistance; and

(iii) The total income of the stepparent does not exceed 150 percent of
the official poverty level, adjusted for family size, established under the federal
Community Services Block Grant Act.

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