    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 10, 1995]
    [Pages 1564-1565]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Message to the Congress Transmitting the Germany-United States
    Social Security Agreement
    October 10, 1995

    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 re-

    [[Page 1565]]

    ceive 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.