[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 17, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
     GEKAS JOINS HOUSE REPUBLICAN'S BILL TO REFORM WELFARE PROGRAM

                                 ______


                          HON. GEORGE W. GEKAS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 17, 1994

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, Supplemental Security Income [SSI] might be 
the most wasteful program in the entire Federal Government, so I have 
joined Congressman Rick Santorum, several Ways and Means Committee 
Republicans, and others to introduce a new House Republican welfare 
bill, this one to radically reform the fourth largest entitlement 
program: the SSI program.


       Supplemental Security Income: The 4th Largest Entitlement

  Created in 1972, SSI provides an entitlement benefit for two groups--
poor elderly and disabled individuals--because age and physical or 
mental impairment reduce the ability to work. Recipients get a monthly 
check of $436 if they're single, or $669 if they're married. In 
addition, they receive Medicaid, which is worth about $8,000 for the 
elderly, $7,000 for the disabled. So the package of benefits is worth a 
minimum of $12,000 per year, much more for couples.
  Spending in the SSI program has increased from $13 billion in 1983 to 
$29 billion in 1994, including a $10 billion rise the last 3 years. The 
spending explosion can be traced to unprecedented increases in three 
demographic groups: first, the number of noncitizens; second, the 
number of children; and, third, the number of alcoholics and drug 
addicts coming onto the SSI rolls.


                          SSI for Noncitizens

  The bill we Republicans are introducing first starts by eliminating 
SSI benefits for most noncitizens. Immigrants should--and most do--come 
to America for opportunity, not welfare. However, until they become a 
citizen, immigrants must support themselves or be supported by a 
sponsor who signs an affidavit agreeing to meet that immigrant's basic 
needs. After steep rises in recent years, the number of noncitizens on 
SSI went from 128,000 in 1982 to 700,000 this year, 60 percent of whom 
are elderly. Once on SSI, noncitizens are automatically eligible for 
Medicaid, and, most of the time, food stamps. It is no surprise that we 
spend around $8 billion per year on welfare benefits for immigrants.
  By ending SSI benefits and, in most cases, Medicaid for noncitizens, 
the Republican bill would substantially reduce the SSI rolls. The 
Congressional Budget Office estimates that this single reform would 
save over $15 billion during the next 5 years, and $4.4 billion in the 
final year.


                  SSI Disability for Substance Abusers

  The second major section of the bill dramatically alters the SSI 
program for alcoholics and addicts. SSI law stipulates that people with 
drug or alcohol addictions that are severe enough to interfere with 
their ability to work are by definition disabled and therefore eligible 
for SSI benefits. These addicts may be disabled, but they are not too 
spaced out to recognize a good deal when they see one. The SSI program 
for addicts has been one of the fastest growing sources of spending in 
the Federal budget for the past 3 or 4 years. With 4,700 addicts on SSI 
in 1985, the number of alcoholics and addicts drawing SSI benefits has 
increased to 78,000 in the last year alone.
  Recent Ways and Means hearings have shown that only 10 percent of SSI 
addicts are participating in treatment programs as required by law. 
Rather, they appear to be receiving the cash SSI benefit of about $450 
per month and using the money to purchase drugs. Once addicts get on 
SSI, it becomes a permanent source of money to support their drug 
habit.
  The Republican bill would limit receipt of SSI by addicts to 3 years, 
would require addicts to submit to drug tests and temporarily end their 
cash benefit if they test positive for illegal substances, would 
penalize addicts for not sticking with their treatment program, and 
would strengthen a program requiring that the cash SSI benefit be paid 
to a third party rather than directly to the addict. These provisions 
are estimated by CBO to save about $130 million over 5 years.


                        SSI Disability for Kids

  The second demographic group causing SSI spending to mushroom is 
children. The most sensitive issue of SSI reform is the provision for 
children in that Members feared being accused of being antichild. 
However, committee testimony has shown that exclusion of this SSI/kids 
provision would be more antichild than allowing the following abuses to 
continue. When SSI was passed back in 1972, a mere 26-word section was 
slipped in during the House-Senate conference that made children 
eligible for the benefit. The provision received virtually no 
discussion by the committees of jurisdiction or on the floor of either 
House.
  Why children are even eligible for SSI is something of a mystery. The 
underlying concept of SSI is that if people are too old or too disabled 
to work, SSI provides a substitute for wages. But children are not 
expected to work; the basic rationale of SSI doesn't fit.
  Now there is widespread abuse of the program. Reports have been 
submitted that parents are tutoring their children to act up in 
school--particularly attention and behaviorial disorders--so they can 
qualify for the $450 per month cash benefit, which also carries 
eligibility for Medicaid health insurance. After a 1990 Supreme Court 
decision, SSI administrators loosened eligibility requirements for 
children, especially those who have hard-to-measure impairments such as 
attention deficit disorders. The result has been a surge in child 
recipients, from a little over 300,000 in 1990 to nearly 800,000 in 
1993.
  An additional problem with providing cash to families because they 
have a disabled child is that there is no assurance that the cash will 
actually be used to help the disabled child. The concern of Congress is 
to help disabled children get treatment for their condition at public 
expense. Therefore, the Republican bill converts the entitlement for 
cash into vouchers for treatment, thereby removing the incentive to 
cheat in order to receive the cash benefit.
  Republicans are not getting cooperation from Democrats on these 
provisions. On May 3, 1994 during Ways and Means Committee passage of a 
bill to clean up the SSI disability program, the Democrats defeated 
both the provision on immigrants and the provision on children. 
Similarly, President Clinton has ignored SSI when discussing welfare 
reform.
  The CBO estimates that the Republican bill would save about $16 
billion over 5 years.


                          Welfare Bureaucracy

  During the May 12 press conference announcing the introduction of the 
SSI bill, Minority Whip Newt Gingrich commented how SSI is a microcosm 
for the larger problems of the welfare state.
  First, Gingrich says the examples of local bartenders acting as 
representatives payees would not have been allowed if control of 
welfare dollars resided in a local agency, not the Federal bureaucracy. 
Second, a prisoner letter by lawyers showing prisoners how to apply for 
SSI demonstrates the lengths unscrupulous individuals go to game the 
system. Third, the SSI/kids problem shows the problem of perverse 
incentives: children are trained to fail to get crazy checks, and 
young, healthy low-income males who are ineligible for welfare get 
diagnosed as disabled because of their drug habit to receive SSI. These 
problems demonstrate further the aggregate failure of the bureaucratic 
welfare state.