[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENT AMENDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN UNITED STATES 
   AND GERMANY ON SOCIAL SECURITY--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
                  UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 104-123)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message 
from the President of the United States; which was read and, together 
with the accompanying papers, without objection, 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.

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