Plan destroys PC ---past efforts have all been stalled.

After the United States Supreme Court’s overwhelming decision validating (in an 8-1 vote) the exclusion of Puerto Rico residents from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in the case of José Luis Vaello Madero, the opportunity to unlock that access seems to be in the hands of the Democratic-majority Congress. The window, however, is short and uphill during Congress’s ongoing session ending in December.

The extension of SSI to Puerto Rico residents is currently included in three congressional bills, among them the budget reconciliation bill called “Build Back Better” (BBB), which contains US President Joe Biden’s social agenda. The bill, approved last November in the House of Representatives, includes the extension of the SSI program to Puerto Rico. The Social Security Administration (SSA), which manages SSI, estimated the extension would have an annual cost of $2.27 billion in 2020, out of the roughly $1.85 trillion total in the Build Back Better bill. In a Senate divided halfway and in which US Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaker vote– the legislation, being a budget reconciliation bill, could be approved by a simple majority and avoid the filibuster rule, which typically requires 60 votes to bring a bill to a final vote. However, with Republicans in total opposition to the BBB, Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema halted —without taking a stance on the SSI extension to Puerto Rico— a bill that they considered too onerous.

The available path in this context would be that Democrats, with greater probability after the November elections, could agree on a bill that includes some of the proposals of the BBB, among them extending the SSI to Puerto Rico. El Nuevo Día newspaper asked all 100 United States senators for their stance on the extension of SSI to Puerto Rico and whether or not they favor Biden’s promise, which so far has not been able to materialize through any of the two available channels, be it judicial or legislative. Only five senators answered. “Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States, just like any citizen living in the continental US. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the US confirming the exclusion of Puerto Rico from Supplemental Security Income is inconceivable,” said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. GIllibrand said she favors legislation allowing Puerto Ricans to have access to SSI from the island. She also recognized that older and disabled adults rely heavily on SSI for various aspects of their daily lives, and advocated for equal access and rights for Puerto Ricans. Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts also supports the extension of SSI benefits to Puerto Ricans “through any possible legislative means, including annual appropriations or budget reconciliation processes, and would vote for this extension if it came to that,” for Senate consideration. Markey stressed that United States citizens living in Puerto Rico and other US territories should be able to access the same benefits as Americans in the 50 states and Washington D.C. He also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in the Vaello-Madero case, noticing that it “reinforces the incorrect and discriminatory notion that Puerto Ricans and other people living in US territories are second-class citizens, in particularly elderly and disabled residents.” Along the same lines, Democratic Senator Robert Menéndez of New Jersey assured he supports the inclusion of the SSI program for Puerto Rico in a budget reconciliation package. “As far as pushing for any potential package to include an extension of SSI benefits for Americans in Puerto Rico and all territories, I would certainly support including such a provision. It’s fair to do so for the millions of Americans who live in Puerto Rico and other excluded territories,” he stated. Besides Puerto Rico, residents of the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa also do not have access to this program. None of the Republican senators and other Democrats, including Manchin, answered direct questions about whether they would support a budget reconciliation bill with the SSI extension.

Pending on Congress

Apart from the Biden administration bill, on April 20 of last year, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Markey and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) submitted Senate Bill 1228 to create the Territorial Equity Act of 2021 which, among other equality proposals, would extend the SSI to the island. However, nothing has happened beyond the bill’s introduction on Senate.

“US citizens living in Puerto Rico should have the same basic support that all other US citizens are entitled to, including Supplemental Security Income benefits. Congress should pass the Territorial Equity Act,” Warren told this news outlet.

The same bill was also introduced in the US House of Representatives by Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), with the co-authorship of fellow New York Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ritchie Torres, as well as Rep. Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), chair of the Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over Puerto Rican affairs.

After being introduced in the House, H.R. 2713 was referred to the committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, Education and Labor, Natural Resources, as well as the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations, and the Subcommittee on Health. But nothing has progressed since June 2021.

Previously, Puerto Rico’s non-voting member of Congress, Jenniffer González, a Republican, introduced on January 28, 2021 the bill H.R. 537, or the Supplemental Security Income Equalization Act, to extend SSI to Puerto Rico. The bill was co-authored by Democratic Representatives Torres and Darren Soto (Florida), as well as delegates from the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. After being referred to the Subcommittee on Social Security and the House Ways and Means Committee, nothing has happened.