---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 18501"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "18501"
heading: "Exclusion of payments from State eugenics compensation programs from consideration in determining eligibility for, or the amount of, Federal public benefits"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/18501"
units:
  - "Chapter 160 — Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation"
---

# §18501. Exclusion of payments from State eugenics compensation programs from consideration in determining eligibility for, or the amount of, Federal public benefits

- (a) **In general—** Notwithstanding any other provision of law, payments made under a [State](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14) eugenics compensation program shall not be considered as income or resources in determining eligibility for, or the amount of, any Federal public benefit.
- (b) **Definitions—** For purposes of this section:
  - (1) **Federal public benefit—** The term “Federal public benefit” means—
    - (A) any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial license provided by an [agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States; and
    - (B) any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an [agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.
  - (2) **State eugenics compensation program—** The term “[State](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14) eugenics compensation program” means a program established by [State](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14) law that is intended to compensate individuals who were sterilized under the authority of the [State](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 114–241, § 2, Oct. 7, 2016, 130 Stat. 976.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 114–241, § 1, Oct. 7, 2016, 130 Stat. 976, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act’.”