President. I want to thank the distinguished chairman and ranking member of the Budget Committee for their help on this amendment. The amendment before the Senate addresses the treatment of poor. elderly legal immigrants who are dependent on SSI benefits. SSI is a Federal program that provides cash assistance to those who are either elderly or disabled. and of very low income. .Pursuant to last years welfare law. legal immigrants may no longer receive SSI benefits. Those who were receiving SSI on the date the law was enacted therefore are scheduled to lose that assistance beginning on August 1 of this year. although thanks to an amendment I offered with Senator DAMATO and others to the disaster relief bill. that cutoff date likely will be pushed back to October 1. In my view. the welfare laws SSI restrictions were not only harsh. but unfair. particularly to those elderly or disabled legal immigrants who were relying on those critical benefits at the time. It seems an increasing number of Senators and Representatives agree. Therefore. this year Congress is considering proposals to revise the legal immigrant SSI restrictions. The particular proposal suggested by the budget resolution addresses immigrants plight by exempting from the SSI ban those who are disabled and who were in the country when the bill was signed. While that is an important step toward fairness. it would mean that legal immigrants who are elderly. but not disabled. would be left out. and would lose their SSI benefits. If this proposal were enacted. the Social Security Administration would need to reevaluate all the elderly SSI recipients to determine how many would requalify as disabled. That process would take perhaps 6 months.
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immigrant immigrants