The House 26-125, rejected an amendment that would expand the background checks that the state must conduct on emergency assistance shelter applicants by mandating universal criminal background checks that include criminal records at the state, federal and international levels; immigration or residency status; and presence on international or domestic criminal watch lists.

“While the underlying bill requires individuals applying for emergency assistance housing benefits to disclose prior criminal convictions and calls for CORI checks to be conducted prior to placement, these checks are limited to crimes committed in Massachusetts,” said amendment sponsor Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading). “If we are serious about keeping dangerous criminals out of the shelter system, then we need to strengthen the background check requirement and mandate more comprehensive universal background checks that will disclose criminal records not only at the state level, but also at the federal and international levels.”

Rep. Michael Day (D-Stoneham) said that the amendment was an attempted Republican “backdoor” to “strangle our emergency shelter law altogether and kill it from within.” He said the background checks the amendment would require would also check the education backgrounds of applicants, credit scores and financial information.

“Now we want to find out the credit-worthiness of a young family applying for emergency shelter,” said Day. He sarcastically asked if this credit check was going to make the shelters and residents safer — finding out what Kohl’s thinks about their ability to get a credit card.”

(A “Yes” vote is for the broader background checks. A “No” vote is against them.)

Rep. Christine Barber No Rep. Mike Connolly No Rep. Paul Donato No Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven No