2 — Benefits – SSI benefits prevent migration and encourage spending – that creates jobs and increases tax revenues.

If SSI discrimination is ended, and poor and disabled residents of Puerto Rico are able to receive the same benefits available to their fellow citizens, the U.S. government has estimated that as many as 435,000 people will qualify for the SSI program—about 10 times as many Puerto Ricans as receive AABD benefits. Rosanna Torres, Ctr. for a New Economy, Impact of the Supplemental Security Income in Puerto Rico (June 25, 2020), https://grupocne.org/2020/06/25/impact-ofthe-ssi-in-puerto-rico/. Benefit amounts will increase dramatically because SSI’s maximum monthly benefit is $794, compared to $164 for AABD. See Ctr. for Budget & Policy Priorities, supra, at 3. The end of SSI discrimination would have major, salutary effects on Puerto Rico’s economy. Perhaps most obviously, extending SSI to Puerto Rico would lower the island’s poverty rate, likely by more than seven percentage points. Econometrika Corp., The Impact of Disparities in SNAP and SSI on Puerto Rico’s Poverty and Economic Growth 4 (Feb. 2019), 22 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340610699_ The_impact_of_disparities_in_SNAP_and_SSI_ on_Puerto_Rico’s_poverty_and_economic_growth. This reduction in poverty would in turn help to stem out-migration, which drains the island’s tax base and imposes economic strain on those states to which Puerto Ricans move. See Suzanne Gamboa, Puerto Rico’s Population Fell 11.8% to 3.3 million, Census Shows, NBC News (Apr. 26, 2021), https://www. nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-ricos-populationfell-118-33-million-census-shows-rcna767; see also Andrew Boryga, How the Turmoil in Puerto Rico Affects Florida, S. Fla. Sun Sentinel (Jul. 26, 2019), https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne- what-to-know-about-florida-puerto-ricans-20190726- pc3ijrxonbdg7pd2vterwvn3wu-story.html. In addition, because SSI recipients qualify for assistance due to their extremely low income levels, Puerto Ricans who receive SSI benefits would likely spend their funds quickly and locally to purchase necessities like food, electricity, and housing. According to a recent study by the Econometrika Corporation, SSI parity for Puerto Rico would encourage on-island spending, resulting in tens of millions of additional dollars in sales tax revenue. Econometrika Corp., supra, at 5. Together, SSI and nutrition assistance parity would also create 39,026 new jobs. Id. at 4. Simply put, there is no reason to believe that extending SSI benefits to Puerto Rico will have a negative, disruptive effect on the island’s economy. To the contrary, extension of SSI benefits to Puerto Rico’s population will simultaneously reduce poverty and increase consumer spending. Only one who believes, irrationally and unjustifiably, that “programs designed to help the poor should be less fully applied in those 23 areas where the need may be the greatest” could conclude otherwise. Rosario, 446 U.S. at 655 (Marshall, J., dissenting).