[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2401 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2401

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 10, 2003

 Mr. Deal of Georgia introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend 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 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.
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