Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-303_6khn.pdf
Page Number: 36

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

United States as including “the 50 States and the District
of Columbia.”  42 U. S. C. §§1382c(a)(1)(B)(i), (e).  Congress
later  extended  the  SSI  program  to  residents  of  the  Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.  90 Stat. 263, 
note following 48 U. S. C. §1801. 

Although Puerto Rico is not a State, it has been part of
the United States for well over a century, and people born 
in Puerto Rico are U. S. citizens.2  In other contexts, Con-
gress has made clear that references to the “United States”
include Puerto Rico.  See, e.g., 52 U. S. C. §20310(8).  In this 
context, however, Congress did not extend the SSI program 
to Puerto Rico and other Territories.  Instead, Congress left 
in place the AABD program.  See notes following 42 U. S. C. 
§§1381–1385. 

Congress’ decision not to include Puerto Rico in the SSI
program has a significant impact on U. S. citizens in Puerto
Rico.  In 2021, 34,224 residents of Puerto Rico were enrolled 
in  the  AABD  program;  by  contrast,  in  2011,  the  Govern-
ment  Accountability  Office  estimates  that  over  300,000
Puerto Rico residents would have qualified for SSI.  Brief 
for  Hon.  Jenniffer  A.  Gonzalez  Colon,  Resident  Commis-
sioner for Puerto Rico, as Amicus Curiae 28, 34.  The 34,224 
Puerto Rico residents enrolled in AABD in 2021 received an 
average of $82 per month, compared to the $574 per month 
that the average SSI recipient received in Fiscal Year 2020. 
Id.,  at  29,  33.    In  other  words,  significantly  fewer  Puerto 
Rico residents are eligible for AABD than would be eligible 
for  SSI,  and  the  benefits  they  receive  under  AABD  are
hardly comparable to those they would likely receive under 
SSI. 

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2 By the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spain “cede[d] to the United States the 
Island of Porto Rico.”  Treaty of Paris, Art. 2, Dec. 10, 1898, 30 Stat. 1755. 
Through the Jones Act of 1917, anyone born in Puerto Rico on or after 
April 11, 1899, became a United States citizen.  Organic Act of Puerto 
Rico, §5, 39 Stat. 953.