Press Releases
Neal Responds to Supreme Court Decision Continuing Puerto Rico’s Exclusion from Federal Benefits
Springfield, MA,
April 21, 2022
Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) released the following statement after the Supreme Court ruled to continue to unfairly exclude the residents of Puerto Rico from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program: “This harmful ruling prevents disabled and elderly people from receiving critical support they need for basic necessities like food and shelter, and it perpetuates the damaging idea that Puerto Ricans and residents of the other U.S. territories are second-class Americans. Ways and Means Democrats successfully ensured that the House-passed Build Back Better Act would extend SSI to all U.S. territories, and I will continue fighting for that expansion to become law. The territories’ exclusion from these federal benefits is simply wrong.” ### |