[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2942 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2942

  To amend title II of the Social Security Act to eliminate the five-
month waiting period in the disability insurance program, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 17, 2002

Mr. Crapo (for himself, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Specter, Mr. Miller, Mr. McCain, 
 and Mr. Bunning) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 
                and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title II of the Social Security Act to eliminate the five-
month waiting period in the disability insurance program, and for other 
                               purposes.

    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 ``Social Security Act Improvements for 
the Terminally Ill Act''.

SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF TITLE II WAITING PERIOD FOR TERMINALLY ILL 
              INDIVIDUALS.

    Section 223(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 423(a)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``he meets the 
        requirements of paragraph (3), or'' after ``but only if''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(3)(A) For purposes of paragraph (1), an individual meets the 
requirements of this paragraph if--
            ``(i) the impairment underlying a finding that the 
        individual is under a disability results in his death prior to 
        the end of the applicable period described in subparagraph (B), 
        or
            ``(ii)(I) in the case where such finding is made before the 
        end of the applicable period, the Commissioner determines that, 
        at the time such finding is made, such impairment is expected 
        to result in the individual's death prior to the end of such 
        period, or
            ``(II) in the case where such finding is made after the end 
        of the applicable period, the Commissioner determines that, at 
        any time during such period, such impairment was expected to 
        result in the individual's death prior to the end of such 
        period.
    ``(B) For the purposes of subparagraph (A), the `applicable period' 
is the period of the first six consecutive calendar months throughout 
which such individual is under a disability by reason of such 
impairment which begins not earlier than the first day of the period 
described in subsection (c)(2)(B).''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect with respect to 
applications filed after the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>