[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.