{"id":338021,"date":"2021-02-08T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T20:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=338021"},"modified":"2021-02-08T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T20:00:20","slug":"add-pr-usvi-guam-a-samoa-to-ssi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/add-pr-usvi-guam-a-samoa-to-ssi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Add PR, USVI, Guam, A. Samoa to SSI\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_338023\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-338023\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Neil-Weare-mug.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-338023\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Neil-Weare-mug-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-338023\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Weare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Nonprofit organization and parity advocate Equally American has urged the House Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives to urge their support for including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa in the Supplemental Security Income program.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to Equally American wrote to committee chair Richard E. Neal (D-Massachusetts) and ranking member Kevin Brady (R-Texas) last Friday, Equally American president Neil Weare said the current situation with the Supplemental Security Income program \u201cis not just unfair and discriminatory, it is unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the SSI program \u201cis a crucial lifeline for disabled, blind, and low-income adults and children throughout the 50 states, the District of\u00a0Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands, [yet] otherwise eligible Americans living in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are arbitrarily excluded from accessing SSI benefits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the First Circuit recently held, there is no rational basis for categorically excluding otherwise eligible Americans from the SSI program simply because they live in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, or American Samoa,\u201d Weare added. \u201cBut Congress should not wait for the Supreme Court to affirm the First Circuit\u2019s opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Rep] Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n (R-Puerto Rico) has proposed a bill to include Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa in the SSI program,\u201d Weare pointed out. \u201cEqually American applauds her bipartisan leadership alongside her colleagues from each of the territories and urges Congress to enact this crucial legislation as soon as possible. Lives literally depend on it,\u201d Weare said.<\/p>\n<p>Equally American is a nonpartisan public interest organization that works to advance equality and voting rights in U.S. territories. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Nonprofit organization and parity advocate Equally American has urged the House Committee on Ways&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":330356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51,4354],"class_list":["post-338021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-guam","tag-usvi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}