SSI was given to PR and then taken

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a cash benefit received by over eight million Americans who are elderly, blind, or have a disability as defined by federal law. The maximum monthly SSI benefit for an individual recipient is set at $ 794 and is not based on a recipient's prior earnings. Furthermore, the income threshold is set nationwide and the asset test is much lower than other means-tested programs. Notably, SSI recipients who live alone, or where all household members receive SSI, are eligible for SNAP and typically eligible for Medicaid. Lastly, as a part of the larger Social Security apparatus, SSI recipients have the same recourse to administrative procedure as recipients of benefits through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. The SSI program operates in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the CNMI. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no SSI program. SSI benefits are not available to these territorial residents. Instead, these Americans are eligible to receive federally funded benefits through the Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (AABD) programs that SSI replaced. And neither AABD nor SSI operates in American Samoa. History provides needed context as to how this came to pass. Prior to 1950, no federal Social Security payments were made to residents of Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Congress debated whether to extend public benefits to both territories. Ultimately, the enacted bill, H.R. 6000, meant that employment in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands would be covered through Social Security's contributory programs, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were treated like states. The Social Security Amendments also meant that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were able to administer the AABD programs similar to states. In 1958, Congress extended AABD to Guam. The fifty states and the District of Columbia also operated AABD into the 1970s. In 1972, Congress replaced, and President Nixon signed into law, the various state-administered AABD programs with a national means-tested disability program called Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Congress excluded Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico from SSI, but extended eligibility to residents of the Northern Mariana Islands a few years [*1674] later. There are some exceptions for children who live in one of the excluded territories but whose parents are serving in the U.S. military. The federal government still provides funding to the territories to help pay for costs of providing cash assistance to the needy, aged, blind, or disabled, but this funding is significantly less than comparable expenditures for SSI. Federal matching grants help fund these disability assistance programs so long as the territories meet certain statutory criteria. To qualify for federal matching grants, a territory must submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assuring the federal government that the program will be administered in conformity with federal law. Territories can set the income thresholds and the benefit levels for the programs. The federal government will provide 75% of benefit payments, with the territories paying 25%. But as with food assistance and healthcare, federal law caps AABD assistance for the territories. This ceiling of support is set by statute and does not reflect inflation.