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Rewrites many Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rules: raises benefit rates and eligibility/resource limits and ties them to annual inflation and poverty guidelines beginning after 2026; removes the SSI "marriage penalty" by making married-couple benefits exactly double single benefits; extends SSI eligibility to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa; changes which assets and payments count for SSI (including excluding certain retirement plans and Indian general welfare benefits); and modifies how sponsor support, in-kind support, State child tax credits, and past-due benefit accounts are treated. It also requires the Social Security Administration to inform applicants about Medicaid transfer rules and to share relevant information with State Medicaid agencies. All changes take effect on the first day of the first calendar month after the one-year anniversary of enactment.
The bill expands and modernizes SSI eligibility and benefit protections for many low-income, elderly, disabled, tribal, and territory residents—raising incomes and reducing certain eligibility traps—while increasing federal costs and creating significant administrative, implementation, and equity challenges that must be managed.
Residents of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa who meet SSI criteria will become eligible for monthly SSI cash benefits, extending federal income support to territory residents.
SSI recipients (especially people with disabilities and low-income seniors) will face higher resource and income thresholds, an increased earned income exclusion, and CPI–E indexing beginning in 2026, preserving eligibility and reducing erosion from inflation.
Low-income SSI recipients (including many seniors and people with disabilities) will receive higher, predictable benefit floors tied to the HHS poverty guideline and married-couple benefits will equal twice single benefits, eliminating the SSI marriage penalty.
The bill expands and modifies SSI eligibility and exclusions in multiple places, which will raise federal program costs and therefore impose larger budgetary demands on taxpayers or require offsets elsewhere in the federal budget.
Numerous changes across titles will create significant administrative and implementation complexity for the Social Security Administration, state agencies, and local offices, risking delays in determinations and transitional confusion for claimants.
Striking or revising existing statutory paragraphs and account-treatment rules could remove prior legal protections or exceptions and thus reduce payments or eligibility for some beneficiaries, creating winners and losers depending on future guidance/implementation.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Adelita S. Grijalva · Last progress March 5, 2026