Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Disaster Income Assistance Act of 2017”.
Disaster Income Assistance Act of 2017
A BILL
To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to allow the Commissioner of Social Security to waive the 30-day residency requirement for receipt of supplemental security income benefits for individuals who evacuate from certain territories of the United States as a result of an emergency or natural disaster.
Sec. 2 Authority to waive 30-day residency requirement
Section 1611(f) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1382(f)) is amended—
in paragraph (1), by striking “Notwithstanding” and inserting “(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), notwithstanding”; and
by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
“(B) The Commissioner of Social Security may waive the requirement in subparagraph (A) that an eligible individual who has been outside the United States for any period of 30 consecutive days shall be treated as remaining outside the United States until such individual has been in the United States for a period of 30 consecutive days in the case of any eligible individual or categories of eligible individuals who evacuate from an emergency area located in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, or American Samoa during an emergency period to one of the 50 States or the District of Columbia. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the terms emergency area and emergency period shall have the meaning given such terms in section 1135(g)(1).”