[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10480-H10481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GENERAL LEAVE

  Mr. BUNNING of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and 
extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4039.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Kentucky?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BUNNING of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4039, the Social Security 
Miscellaneous Amendments Act of 1996.
  A few months ago, the Social Security Administration came to us, and 
asked for legislation to make technical or perfecting changes they 
needed to implement current law. Andy Jacobs and I then introduced this 
legislation, which was favorably reported by the Ways and Means 
Committee on a bipartisan basis. Andy's constructive, bipartisan 
leadership on Social Security issues will be greatly missed.
  Again, let me make it clear that the administration requested these 
technical provisions.
  According to the Social Security Administration, these amendments are 
needed to clarify, first, the drug addicts and alchoholics provisions 
enacted under Public Law 104-121, thereby closing a loophole and 
preventing payment of benefits not intended by Congress; second, to 
clarify that the only judicial review available to disability 
applicants is the normal judicial review of the final decision of the 
Commissioner of Social Security, and that the State disability 
determination services and their employees, like Federal officials, 
cannot be sued for their official acts when making disability decisions 
under the Social Security Act; third, to grant SSA continued 
demonstration project authority; and fourth, to perfect provisions of 
the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, allowing for optional tax withholding 
from Social Security benefits.

  In addition to the technical provisions requested by SSA, H.R. 4039 
includes provisions that further restrict payment of Social Security 
benefits to prisoners. These provisions are virtually identical to ones 
included in the recently enacted welfare reform bill affecting 
prisoners who receive supplemental security income benefits.
  They restrict payment of benefits to all criminals incarcerated 
throughout a month, and provide a financial incentive to correctional 
facilities to report their incarceration to SSA. The provisions save 
the Social Security trust funds $35 million over 7 years. I want to 
commend my colleague on the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Herger, for 
his leadership on this issue.
  I also want to thank both the minority staff and SSA staff for 
providing their assistance in formulating this package.
  The Social Security Subcommittee has worked diligently to assist SSA 
by providing the legislative corrections that SSA said that it needed 
to fulfill its responsibilities to Congress and the American public.
  Neither the Congress nor the American public wants to see Social 
Security benefits paid to drug addicts, alcoholics, or criminals who 
should not receive them.
  I hope that for the sake of the hard-working American public, the 
Senate will see fit to act quickly so that current programs may 
continue to run as they should, and the intent of Congress to stop 
Social Security payments to drug addicts, alcoholics, and prisoners 
will be fulfilled. I urge support of H.R. 4039.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PAYNE of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4039. I have had the pleasure 
of serving on the Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on 
Ways and Means during this session of Congress, serving with Chairman 
Jim Bunning who has worked tirelessly this session to bring about a 
Social Security Administration that deals fairly and effectively with 
Social Security. I have had the pleasure of serving with the gentleman 
from Indiana, Andy Jacobs, who is retiring after 30 years, who has 
spent his entire career working on Social Security, protecting it and 
making it better. And I want to commend both of these gentlemen for the 
effective and bipartisan method in which they have constructed the 
business of the Social Security Subcommittee.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4039. This bill, as Chairman 
Bunning has pointed out, makes a number of technical and miscellaneous 
changes in Social Security. It clarifies the effective date of the 
newly enacted law denying Social Security benefits to drug addicts and 
alcoholics.

                              {time}  1730

  It extends for 1 year the disability demonstration project authority 
of the Social Security Administration. It prohibits lawsuits directly 
against State disability determinations services. And in addition, the 
bill authorizes incentive payments to prisons and local jails to 
encourage jailers to turn over to the Social Security Administration 
the names of prisoners who are receiving Social Security payments. A 
number of years ago, the Congress prohibited the payment of Social 
Security benefits to prisoners, yet the Social Security Administration 
is having a difficult time obtaining the names of Social Security 
recipients incarcerated in the hundreds of local jails around the 
country. So this provision will offer an incentive to all institutions, 
both large and small ones, to provide the names of prisoners receiving 
Social Security benefits.
  The Social Security Administration can then make sure that no 
prisoner continues to receive benefits while institutionalized.
  Mr. Speaker, these are technical changes coupled with some 
improvements in the administration of the Social Security Program, and 
I urge their adoption.

[[Page H10481]]

  Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, today represents another step in our 
efforts to end wasteful Government spending and end the practice of 
supporting criminals at the taxpayers expense.
  Too many individuals serving time in our Nation's prisons currently 
receive regular Social Security payments, despite the fact that it's 
against the law. Current law prohibits prisoners from receiving old 
age, survivors, and disability [OASDI] benefits while incarcerated if 
they are convicted of any crime punishable by imprisonment of more than 
1 year. Also, State and local correctional institutions are required to 
make available, upon written request, the name and Social Security 
number of any individual convicted and confined in a penal institution 
or correctional facility. However, despite current law prisoners are 
still robbing the taxpayers of their hard-earned money.
  The House-passed version of the Personal Responsibility and Work 
Opportunity Act of 1996, corrected this wrong by prohibiting prisoners 
from receiving supplemental security income [SSI] and OASDI benefits 
while incarcerated. It also provided new financial incentives for State 
and local correctional institutions to report information on inmates to 
the Social Security Administration so that taxpayer supported benefits 
could promptly end. Unfortunately, the OASDI provisions were not 
included in the final version of the bill before it was signed into 
law.
  Section 6 of H.R. 4039, the Social Security clarifying amendments, 
would restore the same prohibitions against payments of SSI benefits to 
OASDI benefits--saving the U.S. taxpayers $35 million over 7 years. I 
strongly support these efforts to end the abuses in the Social Security 
benefits programs because it is time to stop frivolously spending the 
taxpayers money and get tough on criminals. This effort is one more 
necessary component to reforming our Federal prison system. For too 
long, liberal judges, slick lawyers, and misguided policies have turned 
prisons into playhouses. To fix that, I have put together legislation 
called the Criminal Correction and Victim Assistance Act that makes it 
clear once and for all that our prisons are not country clubs.
  The bill would make Federal prisoners work 48 hours a week and study 
12 hours more. It would place a 25-percent levy on prisoner wages to go 
toward victim restitution and the protection of our police officers. It 
would curb out-of-control frivolous lawsuits by Federal prisoners. The 
bill would also ban the use of televisions in Federal prisons. And it 
would prohibit weightlifting by Federal prisoners. Why should taxpayers 
be forced to pay for criminals to become stronger and more deadly so 
that they can then prey upon our families and children upon release? I 
was glad to see the ban on TV's and weights as well as the lawsuit 
curbs included in a measure which was signed into law this year.
  All of these steps, including banning Social Security benefits for 
convicted criminals while incarcerated, send the signal that America 
will no longer tolerate those who prey on law-abiding families.
  Mr. PAYNE of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. BUNNING of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Goodlatte). The question is on the 
motion offered by the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Bunning] that the 
House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4039, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was, as amended, was 
passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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