By
DINAH WILEY
Public Benefits Policy Attorney
On the eve of
recess last week, the U.S. Senate passed the two-year extension of
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for refugees and other
"humanitarian immigrants" that advocates have been seeking for
several years.
The bill, HR 2608, finally passed the chamber
by unanimous consent, after being passed by the
House and referred to the Senate one year ago.
Senate-negotiated changes to the House bill did not change the main
framework of the relief, which provides an additional two years of
eligibility to humanitarian immigrants who are approaching the seven
year time-limit or whose benefits were previously terminated due to
that time-limit, which has proven to be too short a period to enable
individuals to preserve eligibility through naturalization. A
third additional year of extended eligibility may be available to
individuals whose naturalization applications are pending.
A few hurdles
remain before the bill will become law. Because the Senate
made changes to the bill, its version will now go back to the House,
where the goal is to re-pass the Senate version without alteration
after the August recess. Also, because of the long delay in
the Senate, the "offset" used to pay for the costs of extended
benefits has also been included in an unrelated bill. As a
result, the SSI bill must reach the president's desk for signature
first in order to retain the current offset provision. The
president has expressed support for an extension of SSI for
humanitarian immigrants.
NILC will
provide further updates as they become available. Though we do
not anticipate difficulties with House passage, this is a good
opportunity to contact your representative and let him or her know
of the vital importance of SSI for elderly and disabled refugees.
The Senate cosponsors issued a press release Friday. Please
scroll down to read their statement, followed by the statement of
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. For further information, contact
Dinah Wiley.
_______________________________________
News Release . . .
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 1, 2008
CONTACT: Gordon Smith Press Office
(202) 224-8329
Rohit Mahajan (Kohl)
(202) 224-5653
United States Senate
Smith and Kohl Successful in
Extending SSI Benefits to Elderly and Disabled Refugees
Washington, DC - Senators Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) and Herb
Kohl (D-WI) were successful in passing legislation today to allow
for an additional two years of Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
benefits eligibility for refugees and other humanitarian immigrants.
The legislation was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent.
"We cannot turn our back on the most
vulnerable political asylees or refugees who are seeking safety in
this great country of ours," said Senator Smith. "Many of
these individuals are elderly who fled persecution or torture in
their home countries. They include Jews fleeing religious
persecution in the former Soviet Union, Iraqi Kurds who fled the
Saddam Hussein regime, Cubans and Hmong people from the highlands of
Laos who served on the side of the United States military during the
Vietnam War. They are elderly and unable to work, and have
become reliant on their SSI benefits as their primary income.
To penalize them because of delays encountered through the
bureaucratic process is unjust and inappropriate."
"As Americans who respect the rights
and dignity of all individuals, we cannot shun those who have been
victimized by authoritarian governments and politically volatile
situations when they seek political asylum in our nation," Kohl
said. "The most vulnerable of these individuals -- those with
disabilities and the elderly -- deserve this extension of modest
assistance to help them settle into their new lives in the United
States. In Wisconsin, where nearly 70,000 current and former
refugees live -- many of whom have fled unthinkable horrors -- this
change represents a step forward in providing a more realistic time
frame for making the critical transition of resettlement."
The SSI program provides subsistence
assistance to cover the basic necessities of elderly and disabled
individuals with little or no other income. Congress modified
the SSI program to include a seven-year time limit on eligibility
for refugees, asylees and other humanitarian immigrants. The
seven-year policy was intended to provide adequate time for
individuals to become citizens and thus retain benefits. Due
to processing delays and other bureaucratic problems, the process
often takes longer than seven years, leaving thousands of elderly
and disabled refugees and others without this essential lifeline.
The Social Security Administration has
projected by the end of 2008 more than 30,000 elderly and disabled
refugees will have lost their benefits and more than 19,000 are
projected to lose their benefits in the coming years.
______________________________________________
News Release…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Roberta Elliott
212-613-1350
HIAS Lauds Senate Passage of SSI
Extension
Measure would help thousands of elderly and disabled Jewish
refugees at risk
(Washington, D.C -- August 1, 2008) - HIAS, the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society, applauds the Senate's passage of a bill
yesterday extending Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for
disabled and elderly refugees. HIAS is particularly gratified
because when this bill becomes law among its primary beneficiaries
will be the aging Russian-Jewish émigré community in the U.S. -- a
population that HIAS has worked tirelessly to protect through years
of intensive advocacy work at the grass-roots, local, regional, and
national levels.
"This is the most encouraging sign
we've seen in recent years that Washington understands the plight of
these refugees, who are in particularly dire situations," says
Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of HIAS. "HIAS has been
adamantly against funding welfare reform at the expense of this
vulnerable population and is appreciative of the bipartisan
leadership shown by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Senator
Herbert Kohl (D-Wisc.), sponsors of the Senate's companion bill."
The House passed
a similar version of the legislation last summer. Both
versions extend SSI eligibility for two years for refugees, asylees,
and other qualified immigrants, including those whose benefits
recently expired. Benefits also would be extended an
additional year for refugees waiting for a decision on their pending
citizenship applications. The SSI legislation comes at no cost
to American taxpayers, as it funded through a provision that allows
the government to deduct from taxpayers' refund checks debts they
might owe for fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits.
HIAS, which has worked on behalf of
the Jewish community on all aspects of immigration and resettlement
since it opened its doors in 1881, has been aggressively advocating
for solutions to the SSI issue since 1996, when welfare reform
severely restricted access to subsistence benefits for elderly and
disabled refugees. In 2003 the severity of the problem came to
light, particularly after changes in U.S. policies created massive
naturalization backlogs.
The number of people who are losing
their life-sustaining SSI benefits, in large part due to delays in
the immigration system beyond their control, is climbing. The
Social Security Administration currently projects that by the end of
2008 more than 30,000 elderly and disabled refugees will have lost
their benefits; more than 19,000 are projected to lose their
benefits in the coming years. These individuals fled
persecution or torture in countries such as Iran, Russia, Iraq,
Vietnam, and Somalia, and now are too elderly or disabled to support
themselves.
The House and the Senate are expected
to reconcile the two pieces of legislation, immediately after the
August recess.
