Title: Disaster Income Assistance Act of 2017
Policy area: Social Welfare

Summary:
Disaster Income Assistance Act of 2017
This bill amends title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) of the Social Security Act to waive the 30-day residency requirement with respect to SSI benefits for an individual who evacuates from an emergency area in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Under current law, an individual who has been outside of the United States for 30 consecutive days is generally ineligible to receive SSI benefits until the individual has returned to the United States and resided there for 30 consecutive days.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1944 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1944

To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to allow the Commissioner 
   of Social Security to waive the 30-day residency requirement for 
 receipt of supplemental security income benefits for individuals who 
 evacuate from certain territories of the United States as a result of 
                   an emergency or natural disaster.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 5, 2017

  Mr. Nelson introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to allow the Commissioner 
   of Social Security to waive the 30-day residency requirement for 
 receipt of supplemental security income benefits for individuals who 
 evacuate from certain territories of the United States as a result of 
                   an emergency or natural disaster.

    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 ``Disaster Income Assistance Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. AUTHORITY TO WAIVE 30-DAY RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT.

    Section 1611(f) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1382(f)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Notwithstanding'' and 
        inserting ``(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), 
        notwithstanding''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
    ``(B) The Commissioner of Social Security may waive the requirement 
in subparagraph (A) that an eligible individual who has been outside 
the United States for any period of 30 consecutive days shall be 
treated as remaining outside the United States until such individual 
has been in the United States for a period of 30 consecutive days in 
the case of any eligible individual or categories of eligible 
individuals who evacuate from an emergency area located in the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, or 
American Samoa during an emergency period to one of the 50 States or 
the District of Columbia. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the 
terms `emergency area' and `emergency period' shall have the meaning 
given such terms in section 1135(g)(1).''.
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