[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 473 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 473

 To amend title II of the Social Security Act to credit prospectively 
 individuals serving as caregivers of dependent relatives with deemed 
              wages for up to five years of such service.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 29, 2003

Mrs. Lowey (for herself, Mr. Abercrombie, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Conyers, Mr. 
 Crowley, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Filner, Mr. Frost, Mr. Hastings of Florida, 
 Mr. Kucinich, Mr. McDermott, Ms. Norton, Mr. Oberstar, Mr. Payne, Mr. 
   Sanders, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. 
Berkley, Ms. Millender-McDonald, and Mr. Farr) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title II of the Social Security Act to credit prospectively 
 individuals serving as caregivers of dependent relatives with deemed 
              wages for up to five years of such service.

    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 Caregiver Credit Act 
of 2003''.

SEC. 2. DEEMED WAGES FOR CAREGIVERS OF DEPENDENT RELATIVES.

    (a) In General.--Title II of the Social Security Act is amended by 
adding after section 234 (42 U.S.C. 434) the following new section:

          ``deemed wages for caregivers of dependent relatives

                             ``Definitions

    ``Sec. 235. (a) For purposes of this section--
            ``(1) The term `qualifying month' means, in connection with 
        an individual, a month during which such individual was engaged 
        for not less than 80 hours in providing care to a dependent 
        relative without monetary compensation. Such term does not 
        include any month ending after the date on which such 
        individual attains retirement age (as defined in section 
        216(l)).
            ``(2) The term `dependent relative' means, in connection 
        with an individual--
                    ``(A) a child, grandchild, niece, or nephew (of 
                such individual or such individual's spouse or domestic 
                partner) who is under the age of 12, or
                    ``(B) a child, grandchild, niece, or nephew (of 
                such individual or such individual's spouse or domestic 
                partner), a parent, aunt, or uncle (of such individual 
                or his or her spouse or domestic partner), or such 
                individual's spouse or domestic partner, if such child, 
                grandchild, niece, nephew, parent, aunt, uncle, spouse, 
                or domestic partner is a chronically dependent 
                individual.
            ``(3)(A) The term `chronically dependent individual' means 
        an individual who--
                    ``(i) is dependent on a daily basis on verbal 
                reminding, physical cueing, supervision, or other 
                assistance provided to the individual by another person 
                in the performance of at least 2 of the activities of 
                daily living (described in subparagraph (B)), and
                    ``(ii) without the assistance described in clause 
                (i), could not perform such activities of daily living.
            ``(B) The `activities of daily living' referred to in 
        subparagraph (A) are the following:
                    ``(i) Eating.
                    ``(ii) Bathing.
                    ``(iii) Dressing.
                    ``(iv) Toileting.
                    ``(v) Transferring in and out of a bed or in and 
                out of a chair.

                      ``Deemed Wages of Caregiver

    ``(b)(1)(A) For purposes of determining entitlement to and the 
amount of any monthly benefit for any month after December 2003, or 
entitlement to and the amount of any lump-sum death payment in the case 
of a death after such month, payable under this title on the basis of 
the wages and self-employment income of any individual, and for 
purposes of section 216(i)(3), such individual shall be deemed to have 
been paid during each qualifying month (in addition to wages or self-
employment income actually paid to or derived by such individual during 
such month) at an amount per month equal to the excess (if any) of--
            ``(i) 50 percent of the average amount of wages and self-
        employment income otherwise credited to individuals for such 
        month under this title, over
            ``(ii) the amount of wages and self-employment income 
        actually paid to or derived by such individuals for such month.
    ``(B) In any case in which there are more than 60 qualifying months 
for an individual, only the last 60 of such months shall be taken into 
account for purposes of this section.
    ``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not be applicable in the case of any 
monthly benefit or lump-sum death payment if a larger such benefit or 
payment, as the case may be, would be payable without its application.

                ``Citizenship and Residency Requirements

    ``(c)(1) A qualifying month shall not be taken into account under 
this section with respect to any individual unless such individual--
            ``(A) is throughout the qualifying month a resident of the 
        United States (as defined in paragraph (2)), and
            ``(B)(i) is throughout the qualifying month a citizen of 
        the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent 
        residence, and
            ``(ii) in the case of an individual who was not a citizen 
        of the United States throughout the qualifying month, has 
        resided in the United States (as defined in subsection 210(i)) 
        continuously during the 5 years immediately preceding the 
        qualifying month.
    ``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1)(A), the term `United States' 
means the 50 States and the District of Columbia.

                     ``Identification Requirements

    ``(d) A qualifying month shall not be taken into account under this 
section with respect to an individual unless such individual provides 
the Commissioner of Social Security with the name and social security 
account number of the dependent relative with respect to whom the 
individual was engaged in providing care during such month, and other 
information as the Commissioner may require to verify the status of the 
dependent relative, on whatever application may be required to obtain 
benefits under this section.

``Annual Reimbursement of Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust 
                                  Fund

    ``(e) There are authorized to be appropriated to the Federal Old-
Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund for the fiscal year ending 
September 30, 2004, and for each fiscal year thereafter, such sums as 
the Commissioner of Social Security deems necessary on account of--
            ``(1) payments made under this section during the second 
        preceding fiscal year and all fiscal years prior thereto to 
        individuals entitled to benefits under this section,
            ``(2) the additional administrative expenses resulting from 
        the payments described in paragraph (1), and
            ``(3) any loss in interest to such Trust Fund resulting 
        from such payments and expenses,
in order to place such Trust Fund in the same position at the end of 
such fiscal year as it would have been in if such payments had not been 
made.''.
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