[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 9 (Monday, March 3, 1997)]
[Pages 246-247]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the United Kingdom-United States 
Supplementary Social Security Agreement

February 25, 1997

To the Congress of the United States:

    Pursuant to section 233(e)(1) of the Social Security 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 Supplementary Agreement Amending the 
Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the 
Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 
on Social Security (the Supplementary Agreement), which consists of two 
separate instruments: a principal agreement and an administrative 
arrangement. The Supplementary Agreement, signed at London on June 6, 
1996, is intended to modify certain provisions of the original United 
States-United Kingdom Social Security Agreement signed at London 
February 13, 1984.
    The United States-United Kingdom Social Security Agreement is 
similar in objective to the social security agreements with Austria, 
Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, 
Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and 
Switzerland. Such bilateral agreements provide for limited coordination 
between the U.S. 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 Supplementary Agreement, which would amend the 1984 Agreement to 
update and clarify several of its provisions, is necessitated by changes 
that have occurred in U.S. and English law in recent years. Among other 
things, the Supplementary Agreement removes certain restrictions in the 
original agreement concerning payment of UK disability benefits to 
residents of the United States. The Supplementary Agreement will also 
make a number of minor revisions in the Agreement to take account of 
other changes in U.S. and English law that have occurred in recent 
years.
    The United States-United Kingdom 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 Supplementary Agreement, along with a paragraph-by-paragraph 
explanation of the effect of the amendments on the principal agreement 
and the related ad

[[Page 247]]

ministrative arrangement. Annexed to this report is the report required 
by section 233(e)(1) of the Act on the effect of the Agreement, as 
amended, on income and expenditures of the U.S. Social Security program 
and the number of individuals affected by the amended Agreement. The 
Department of State and the Social Security Administration have 
recommended the Supplementary Agreement and related documents to me.
    I commend the United States-United Kingdom Supplementary Social 
Security Agreement and related documents.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
February 25, 1997.