```

[Journal of the House of Representatives, 1995]
[Tuesday, October 10, 1995 (125), Para 125.16 Message from the President--US-Republic of Germany Social Security Agreement]
[Pages 1497-1498]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

para.125.16  message from the president--us-republic of germany social 
          security agreement

  The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr. LATHAM, laid before the House a message 
from the President, which was read as follows:

To the Congress of the United States:
  Pursuant to section 233(e)(1) of the Social Security Act (the 
``Act''), as amended by the Social Security Amendments of 1977 (Public 
Law 95-216; 42 U.S.C. 433(e)(1)), I transmit herewith the Second 
Supplementary Agreement Amending the Agreement Between the United States 
of America and the Federal Republic of Germany on Social Security (the 
Second Supplementary Agreement), which consists of two separate 
instruments: a principal agreement and an administrative arrangement. 
The Second Supplementary Agreement, signed at Bonn on March 6, 1995, is 
intended to modify certain provisions of the original United States-
Germany Social Security Agreement, signed January 7, 1976, which was 
amended once before by the Supplementary Agreement of October 2, 1986.
  The United States-Germany Social Security Agreement is similar in 
objective to the social security agreements with Austria, Belgium, 
Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the 
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the 
United Kingdom. Such bilateral agreements provide for limited 
coordination between the United States and foreign social security 
systems to eliminate dual social security coverage and taxation, and to 
help prevent the loss of benefit protection that can occur when workers 
divide their careers between two countries.
  The present Second Supplementary Agreement, which would further amend 
the 1976 Agreement to update and clarify several of its provisions, is 
necessitated by changes that have occurred in U.S. and German law in 
recent years. Among other things, it would extend to U.S. residents the 
advantages of recent German Social Security legislation that allows 
certain ethnic German Jews from Eastern Europe to receive German 
benefits based on their Social Security coverage in their former 
homelands.
  The United States-Germany Social Security Agreement, as amended, would 
continue to contain all provisions mandated by section 233 and other 
provisions that I deem appropriate to carry out the provisions of 
section 233, pursuant to section 233(c)(4) of the Act.
  I also transmit for the information of the Congress a report prepared 
by the Social Security Administration explaining the key points of the 
Second Supplementary Agreement, along with a paragraph-by-paragraph 
explanation

[[Page 1498]]

of the effect of the amendments on the principal agreement and the 
related administrative arrangement. Annexed to this report is the report 
required by section 233(e)(1) of the Act on the effect of the agreement 
on income and expenditures of the U.S. Social Security program and the 
number of individuals affected by the agreement. The Department of State 
and the Social Security Administration have recommended the Second 
Supplementary Agreement and related documents to me.
  I commend the United States-Germany Second Supplementary Social 
Security Agreement and related documents.
                                                   William J. Clinton.  
  The White House, October 10, 1995.

  By unanimous consent, the message, together with the accompanying 
papers, was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and ordered to 
be printed (H. Doc. 104-123).
```