[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 150 (Wednesday, December 10, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE ACT OF 2014

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                               speech of

                             HON. DAVE CAMP

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 3, 2014

  Mr. CAMP. Mr. Speaker, our nation encourages personal savings in a 
number of ways throughout the tax code and now with the ABLE Act we are 
adding one more, specifically for individuals with disabilities. As we 
acknowledge through this legislation the importance of saving for 
individuals with disabilities and their families, it is important to 
place this policy in context and ensure the public and policymakers 
appreciate the continued need for effective asset tests in means-tested 
programs.
  The ABLE Act explicitly ignores ABLE account balances and withdrawals 
for purposes of determining eligibility for Medicaid and other means-
tested programs; under the SSI program, the first $100,000 in account 
balances is not counted as resources and withdrawals, except for those 
relating to housing, are not counted as income. This treatment is 
designed to provide generous new incentives to save for individuals 
with disabilities and their families, which current policy limits.
  It would be a mistake for the public and future policymakers to argue 
that similar treatment should be afforded all low-income individuals 
under existing means-tested programs. Indeed, recent advances in 
administering resource limits suggests that such tools should be used 
more aggressively in making proper determinations about whether other 
individuals have sufficient personal means of support before asking 
taxpayers for government benefits. These advances rebut recent claims 
that administering resource limits is overly time consuming and 
burdensome, and suggest that State and Federal agencies are 
increasingly able to apply these limits in a cost-effective and 
efficient manner. For example, on March 11, 2011, the Ways and Means 
Human Resources Subcommittee heard testimony from the Social Security 
Inspector General about the use of electronic tools such as the Access 
to Financial Institutions (AFI) program, which allows the Social 
Security Administration to automate the process of checking for assets, 
limiting the burden on recipients and field office employees who 
administer the program.
  Another argument for ensuring the use of effective resource limits 
for non-disabled individuals involves program cost. Especially if able-
bodied individuals have significant assets or other resources on which 
to depend, they can and should be expected to use those resources first 
to support themselves before turning to taxpayer support. The 
alternative would be a significant expansion of taxpayer spending on 
able-bodied individuals who have significant personal resources they 
can and should turn to first for support. Recent years have seen 
examples of that through significant degradations in the effectiveness 
of the resource test in the food stamp program.
  As of November 2010, thirty-three states and D.C. excluded the value 
of all vehicles in making food stamp eligibility determinations and in 
the last five years nearly every state has chosen to not have an asset 
test for food stamp benefits at all. Not surprisingly, due to these 
changes and other factors, the food stamp program has grown from 17 
million recipients in the year 2000 to nearly 48 million recipients 
today, at four times its former cost to taxpayers. In July 25, 2012 
testimony before the Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, 
Professor Doug Besharov of the University of Maryland described this 
phenomenon as ``eligibility creep,'' or ``The process through which 
programs are successively expanded through a series of small steps, 
many of whose impacts are imperceptible at the time.''
  Future policymakers need to protect against such eligibility creep 
and continue to ensure that limited taxpayer dollars are properly 
targeted to individuals needing assistance. Just as the ABLE Act allows 
parents to ensure sufficient resources are available to support their 
disabled children after they no longer can do so, we need to be good 
stewards of taxpayer-funded programs to ensure they are sustainable in 
the future. Continuing to effectively and efficiently administer income 
and resources limits, especially with regard to able-bodied 
individuals, is critical to achieving that goal.

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