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The following are summaries, prepared by Social Security's Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs, of legislation of the 110th Congress affecting Social Security benefits and programs. The first session of the 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007. The Senate adjourned sine die on January 2, 2009; House adjourned sine die on January 3, 2009. The 111th Congress convenes on January 6, 2009.
For additional information on legislation, you can use THOMAS, which was developed by the Library of Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the public. You can access THOMAS at: http://thomas.loc.gov/ .
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Legislation |
Summaries of Legislation of the 110th Congress With Provisions Affecting Social Security:
- On September 30, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2608, the “SSI Extension for Elderly and Disabled Refugees Act” (Public Law 110-328). The law will increase the time-limited SSI eligibility period for certain noncitizens (e.g., refugees and asylees) from 7 to 9 years and make exceptions for individuals with naturalization applications pending.
- On September 29, 2008, the House suspended the rules and passed H.R. 6600, the “Medicare Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2008,” by voice vote. The bill would require the removal of SSNs from Medicare cards.
- On September 23, 2008, the House passed H.R. 6897, the "Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2008," by a vote of 392-23. The legislation would provide one-time compensation payments to Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II. Of note, the legislation would specifically exclude such payments from affecting eligibility to Special Veterans Benefits (Title VIII of the Social Security Act), but would not exclude such payments as income or resources for SSI purposes.
- On July 31, 2008, the House passed H.R. 6633, the " Employee Verification Amendment Act of 2008." This bill would evaluate and extend the basic pilot (E-Verify) program until November 30, 2013; provide for yearly funding agreements between DHS and SSA, with advance quarterly payments, and an annual accounting process.
- On July 15, 2008, H.R. 6331, the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008" became law when the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the President's veto of the bill. The House vote was 383–41 and the Senate vote was 70–26. H.R. 6331 became P.L. 110-275.
- On June 18, 2008, H.R. 6124, the “Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008” became law when the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the President's veto of the bill. The House vote was 317 - 109 and the Senate vote was 80 - 14. Provisions of interest to SSA are identical to those in H.R. 2419 (P.L. 100-234), which was also vetoed by the President and subsequently overridden by the House and Senate. However, because the trade provisions were inadvertently omitted during enrollment of the bill, Congressional leaders resubmitted the full text under a new bill number (H.R. 6124), which was passed and sent to the President. H.R. 6124 became P.L. 110-246
- On June 19, 2008, the House passed H.R. 5781, the “Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2008” by a vote of 278-146.
- On June 17, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 6081, the “Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008”.
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On June 3, 2008, by voice vote, the House passed H.R. 4106, the "Telework Improvements Act of 2008".
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On June 3, 2008, by voice vote,the House passed H.R. 4791, the "Federal Agency Data Protection Act".
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On June 3, 2008, by voice vote, the House passed H.R. 3774, the "Senior Executive Service Diversity Act".
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On May 21, 2008, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5787, the "Federal Real Property Disposal Enhancement Act of 2008" by voice vote.
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On April 14, 2008, the House of Representatives passed on a motion to suspend the rules H.R. 3548, the “Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008”.
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On April 9, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 1593, the “Second Chance Act of 2007” (P.L. 110-199). The House passed the bill on November 13, 2007, by a vote of 347 to 62. The Senate passed the bill without amendment by unanimous consent on March 11, 2008.
- On February 13, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 5140, the “Economic Stimulus Act of 2008” (P.L. 110-185). The House passed the bill on January 29th, by a vote of 385 to 35. The Senate amended and passed the bill on February 7th, by a vote of 81 to 16.
- On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 4986, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008” (P.L. 110-181). The provisions of interest to SSA in this law are similar to provisions previously described in Legislative Bulletin 110-17 on H.R. 1585, which was passed by Congress and later vetoed by President Bush because of language in the bill that would allow plaintiffs in lawsuits against Iraq 's former regime to freeze assets needed for the current Iraqi government.
- On December 31, 2007, the President signed into law S.2488, the "Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act 2007." The act has been designated Public Law 110-175.
- On September 24, 2007, H.R. 3046, the ‘‘Social Security Number Privacy and Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2007’’ was reported (amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. See H. Rept. 110-339. On July 18, 2007, the Committee voted 41-0 to approve the bill , which would prevent Federal, State and local governments from displaying Social Security numbers (SSNs) to the public, showing the numbers on identification tags and cards and, in most cases, selling the numbers.
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