    [House Document 104-123]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

            104th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - - - House
    Document 104-123

       SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENT AMENDING THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE

    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ON SOCIAL

                          SECURITY OF JANUARY 7, 1976

                                   __________

                                    MESSAGE

                                      from

                       THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                                  transmitting

     THE SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENT AMENDING THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ON SOCIAL
     SECURITY (THE SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENT), WHICH CONSISTS OF TWO
       SEPARATE INSTRUMENTS: A PRINCIPAL AGREEMENT AND AN ADMINISTRATIVE
                   AGREEMENT, PURSUANT TO 42 U.S.C. 443(e)(1)

      October 10, 1995.--Message and accompanying papers referred to the
             Committee on Ways and Means and ordered to be printed
    To the Congress of the United States:
        Pursuant to section 233(e)(1) of the Social Security Act
    (the ``Act''), as amended by the Social Security Amendments of
    1977 (Public Law 95-216; 42 U.S.C. 433(e)(1)), I transmit
    herewith the Second Supplementary Agreement Amending the
    Agreement Between the United States of America and the Federal
    Republic of Germany on Social Security (the Second
    Supplementary Agreement), which consists of two separate
    instruments: a principal agreement and an administrative
    arrangement. The Second Supplementary Agreement, signed at Bonn
    on March 6, 1995, is intended to modify certain provisions of
    the original United States-Germany Social Security Agreement,
    signed January 7, 1976, which was amended once before by the
    Supplementary Agreement of October 2, 1986.
        The United States-Germany Social Security Agreement is
    similar in objective to the social security agreements with
    Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland,
    Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
    Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Such bilateral
    agreements provide for limited coordination between the United
    States and foreign social security systems to eliminate dual
    social security coverage and taxation, and to help prevent the
    loss of benefit protection that can occur when workers divide
    their careers between two countries.
        The present Second Supplementary Agreement, which would
    further amend the 1976 Agreement to update and clarify several
    of its provisions, is necessitated by changes that have
    occurred in U.S. and German law in recent years. Among other
    things, it would extend to U.S. residents the advantages of
    recent German Social Security legislation that allows certain
    ethnic German Jews from Eastern Europe to receive German
    benefits based on their Social Security coverage in their
    former homelands.
        The United States-Germany Social Security Agreement, as
    amended, would continue to contain all provisions mandated by
    section 233 and other provisions that I deem appropriate to
    carry out the provisions of section 233, pursuant to section
    233(c)(4) of the Act.
        I also transmit for the information of the Congress a
    report prepared by the Social Security Administration
    explaining the key points of the Second Supplementary
    Agreement, along with a paragraph-by-paragraph explanation of
    the effect of the amendments on the principal agreement and the
    related administrative arrangement. Annexed to this report is
    the report required by section 233(e)(1) of the Act on the
    effect of the agreement on income and expenditures of the U.S.
    Social Security program and the number of individuals affected
    by the agreement. The Department of State and the Social
    Security Administration have recommended the Second
    Supplementary Agreement and related documents to me.
        I commend the United States-Germany Second Supplementary
    Social Security Agreement and related documents.

                                                    William J. Clinton.
        The White House, October 10, 1995.