Speaker. the bipartisan legislation before us makes compassionate and common sense changes to several important programs. Most importantly. the bill provides for a permanent extension of supplemental security income for socalled nonqualified aliens. When we passed the Balanced Budget Act last year. we promised to continue SSI benefits for all legal immigrants who were receiving benefits before the enactment of welfare reform. However. the statute only applied this grandfather status to Qualified aliens. a criteria which excluded certain legal immigrants formerly referred to as persons residing under the color of law. This legislation makes good on our original pledge to continue SSI benefits for all legal aliens regardless of their particular immigration status. This bill more than offsets the cost of this change by providing the Social Security Administration with limited authority to recoup SSI overpayments from Social Security checks. In fact. as a whole the legislation will save the Federal Government $93 million over the next 5 years.
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