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HR 1757
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EMPSA Act

To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to provide that the supplemental security income benefits of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities shall not be reduced by reason of marriage.

Introduced Feb 27, 2025

Latest action (Feb 27, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Policy area
Issues
Civil Rights

Summary

  • Allows adults 18 and older with intellectual or developmental disabilities to remain eligible for Supplemental Security Income regardless of marital status.
  • Excludes a spouse's income and resources from being counted in SSI eligibility determinations for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
  • Specifies that SSI benefit amounts for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities shall be calculated using only the individual's own income, regardless of spouse's income.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)

  1. Feb 27, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. · house
  2. Feb 27, 2025 Introduced in House

Text versions (1)

  • Introduced in House · Feb 27, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 27, 2025

Mr. Valadao (for himself and Ms. Lee of Nevada) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to provide that the supplemental security income benefits of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities shall not be reduced by reason of marriage.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Eliminating the Marriage Penalty in SSI Act” or the “EMPSA Act”.

SEC. 2. SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME BENEFITS.

(a) Eligibility for Benefits.—Section 1611(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1382(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(4) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection, each individual who has attained 18 years of age, who is diagnosed with an intellectual or developmental disability, whose income, other than income excluded pursuant to section 1612(b), is at not more than the rate in effect for purposes of paragraph (1)(A) of this subsection, and whose resources, other than resources excluded pursuant to section 1613(a), are not more than the applicable amount in effect for purposes of paragraph (3)(B) of this subsection, shall be an eligible individual for purposes of this title.”.

(b) Amount of Benefit.—Section 1611(b) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1382(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(3) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection, the benefit under this title for an individual described in subsection

(a)(4) of this section, whether or not the individual has an eligible spouse, shall be payable at the rate in effect for purposes of such paragraph (1), reduced by the amount of income, not excluded pursuant to section 1612(b), of the individual.”.

(c) Income and Resource Deeming Rules.—Section 1614(f) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1382c(f)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(5) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of this subsection, for purposes of determining eligibility for, and the amount of, benefits for an individual described in section 1611(a)(4) who is married, the income and resources of the individual is deemed to not include any income or resources of the spouse.”. <all>

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