THE WORK INCENTIVES IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1999 (S. 331)
SPONSOR: Sen. Jeffords, James M. (introduced 01/28/99)

S. 331 begins to address the barriers to employment for people with disabilities including AIDS. It would to support beneficiaries who leave SSDI/SSI for work by providing extended health coverage and employment supports, rather than punishing them by immediately withdrawing all supports.

OFFICIAL TITLE AS INTRODUCED:

A bill to amend the Social Security Act to expand the availability of health care coverage for working individuals with disabilities, to establish a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program in the Social Security Administration to provide such individuals with meaningful opportunities to work, and for other purposes.

COSPONSORS(55):
Sen Kennedy, Edward M. - 01/28/99
Sen Roth, William V., Jr. - 01/28/99
Sen Moynihan, Daniel Patrick - 01/28/99
Sen Chafee, John H. - 01/28/99
Sen Grassley, Charles E. - 01/28/99
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. - 01/28/99
Sen Murkowski, Frank H. - 01/28/99
Sen Breaux, John B. - 01/28/99
Sen Graham, Bob - 01/28/99
Sen Kerrey, J. Robert - 01/28/99
Sen Robb, Charles S. - 01/28/99
Sen Rockefeller, John D., IV - 01/28/99
Sen Bingaman, Jeff - 01/28/99
Sen Boxer, Barbara - 01/28/99
Sen Cleland, Max - 01/28/99
Sen Collins, Susan M. - 01/28/99
Sen Daschle, Thomas A. - 01/28/99
Sen DeWine, Michael - 01/28/99
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. - 01/28/99
Sen Durbin, Richard J. - 01/28/99
Sen Enzi, Michael B. - 01/28/99
Sen Feinstein, Dianne - 01/28/99
Sen Grams, Rod - 01/28/99
Sen Harkin, Tom - 01/28/99
Sen Hollings, Ernest F. - 01/28/99
Sen Hutchinson, Y. Tim - 01/28/99
Sen Inouye, Daniel K. - 01/28/99
Sen Johnson, Tim - 01/28/99
Sen Kerry, John F. - 01/28/99
Sen Mikulski, Barbara A. - 01/28/99
Sen Murray, Patty - 01/28/99
Sen Reed, Jack - 01/28/99
Sen Reid, Harry M. - 01/28/99
Sen Sarbanes, Paul S. - 01/28/99
Sen Snowe, Olympia J. - 01/28/99
Sen Stevens, Ted - 01/28/99
Sen Torricelli, Robert G. - 01/28/99
Sen Wellstone, Paul D. - 01/28/99
Sen Bond, Christopher S. - 02/03/99
Sen Conrad, Kent - 02/03/99
Sen Specter, Arlen - 02/04/99
Sen Bryan, Richard H. - 02/08/99
Sen Baucus, Max - 02/08/99
Sen Akaka, Daniel K. - 02/08/99
Sen Schumer, Charles E. - 02/08/99
Sen Cochran, Thad - 02/08/99
Sen Domenici, Pete V. - 02/08/99
Sen Dorgan, Byron L. - 02/08/99
Sen Levin, Carl - 02/08/99
Sen Leahy, Patrick J. - 02/10/99
Sen Smith, Gordon - 02/22/99
Sen Lincoln, Blanche - 02/22/99
Sen Biden, Joseph R., Jr. - 02/24/99
Sen Byrd, Robert C. - 02/24/99
Sen Mack, Connie - 02/24/99

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED: (from Thomas Website)

Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 - Title I: Expanded Availability of Health Care Services - Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for expanding State options under Medicaid for workers with disabilities, namely by creating State options to eliminate income, assets, and resource limitations for workers with disabilities who buy into Medicaid and to expand opportunities for such workers to make such a buy. Provides that Federal funds paid to a State for medical assistance provided to certain working disabled individuals must be used to supplement but not supplant the level of State funds expended as of FY 1999 for programs to enable working disabled individuals to work.

(Sec. 102) Provides for certain continuation of Medicare coverage for working individuals with disabilities.

(Sec. 103) Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) award grants to eligible States to support establishment of State infrastructures to support the working disabled as well as to enable State outreach campaigns on infrastructure existence; and (2) submit a recommendation to specified congressional committees on whether such grant program should be continued after FY 2010. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 104) Authorizes State demonstration projects for certain Medicaid coverage of up to a specified maximum number of workers with a potentially severe disability, coverage equal to that afforded under the State option provided for above for eliminating income, assets, and resource limitations for disabled workers buying into Medicaid. Authorizes appropriations.

Title II: Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency and Related Provisions - Subtitle A: Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency - Amends part A (General Provisions) of SSA title XI to direct the Commissioner to establish a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program (TWSSP) under which a disabled beneficiary may use a TWSSP ticket issued by the Commissioner under a described system, designed to ensure quality assurance, to obtain employment, vocational rehabilitation services, or other support services, pursuant to an appropriate individual beneficiary work plan that meets specified requirements, at the Commission's expense, from a participating employment network, public or private, which: (1) meets specified qualifications and is under an agreement with the Commissioner who must select a program manager to assist in administering TWSSP; (2) is chosen by the beneficiary, and (3) is willing to accept assignment of the beneficiary's TWSSP ticket. Allows State agencies administering or supervising the administration of the State plan under title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to elect to participate as an employment network. Sets forth special requirements applicable to cross-referral to certain State agencies and requirements relating to provision of services. Describes employment network payment systems. Provides that during any period for which an individual is using a TWSSP ticket, the Commissioner and any applicable State agency may not initiate a continuing disability or similar review with regards to whether the individual is or is not disabled. Requires payments to employment networks to be made out of the social security trust funds in the case of ticketed SSA title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) disability beneficiaries who return to work, or from the appropriation made available for making Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under SSA title XVI, in the case of SSI disability beneficiaries who return to work. Provides for allocation of other costs.

(Sec. 202) Establishes within the Social Security Administration the Work Incentives Advisory Panel to advise the Commissioner with respect to TWSSP, and other Federal officials on related issues. Provides that the costs for carrying out this paragraph shall be paid from amounts available for the administration of SSA titles II and XVI, and shall be allocated among those amounts as appropriate.

Subtitle B: Elimination of Work Disincentives - Amends SSA title II to set forth a number of measures designed to eliminate work disincentives, namely prohibiting work activity as a basis for review of an individual's disability status and providing for expedited eligibility determinations for applications for disability benefits of former certain long-term disability beneficiaries that engaged in substantial gainful activity during a certain extended period following the end of a rehabilitation services trial work period.

Subtitle C: Work Incentives Planning, Assistance, and Outreach - Amends SSA title XI part A to direct the Commissioner to establish a community-based work incentives outreach program for disabled beneficiaries that includes the provision of technical assistance to organizations and entities that are designed to encourage disabled beneficiaries to return to work. Provides that the costs of carrying out this subtitle shall be paid from amounts made available for administration of SSA titles II and XVI, and shall be allocated among such amounts as appropriate.

(Sec. 222) Amends SSA title XI to authorize the Commissioner to make certain minimum payments in each State to the protection and advocacy system established under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act for the purpose of providing services to disabled beneficiaries, services which may include advocacy or other services that such a beneficiary may need to secure or regain gainful employment. Provides for funding similar to that in the paragraph above.

Title III: Demonstration Projects and Studies - Amends the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 to provide for an extension of disability insurance program demonstration project authority to include any group of applicants for benefits under such program with impairments that may reasonably be presumed to be disabling for purposes of such demonstration project.

(Sec. 302) Directs the Commissioner to conduct certain demonstration projects designed to provide for specified reductions in disability insurance benefits based on earnings. Requires expenditures for such demonstration projects to come out of the social security and Medicare trust funds to the extent provided in advance in appropriation acts.

(Sec. 303) Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Commissioner of Social Security and the Secretary of Health and Human Services should establish additional demonstration projects to assist individuals with disabilities to engage in work.

(Sec. 304) Directs the Comptroller General to conduct and report to the Congress on various described studies concerning existing disability-related employment incentives and coordination of the OASDI disability insurance program and the SSI program as they relate to individuals entering or leaving concurrent entitlement under such programs, as well as a study concerning the impact of the .substantial gainful activity limit on return to work.

Title IV: Technical Amendments - Amends the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 with respect to: (1) final adjudication of denied claims by drug addicts and alcoholics for SSA title II disability benefits; and (2) the effective dates of certain requirements concerning representative payees and treatment referrals for such individuals.

(Sec. 402) Amends SSA title II to: (1) provide for payments to State and local prisons for monthly reports on the identities of inmates whose OASDI benefits are determined by the Commissioner not to be payable as a result of such reports; (2) provide for a 50 percent reduction in such payments under SSA titles II and XVI in cases involving a comparable payment under the other title with respect to the same prisoner; (3) exempt from the Privacy Act of 1974 any agreements with State and local prisons to supply such information; (4) transfer from the OASDI trust funds any sums necessary to enable the Commissioner to make such payments; (5) eliminate the requirement that confinement stem only from a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year (thus denying OASDI benefits to individuals confined for any criminal offense); and (6) provide for continued denial of benefits to sex offenders remaining confined to public institutions upon completion of prison term.

(Sec. 403) Provides for a two-year open season for members of the clergy who wish to revoke their exemption from social security coverage.

(Sec. 404) Amends SSA title XI to make a miscellaneous technical amendment relating to cooperative research or development projects under SSA titles II and XVI.

(Sec. 405) Amends SSA title XI to make miscellaneous technical amendments to provisions concerning the requirements of State income and eligibility verification systems, among other changes allowing a State to permit certain employers that make returns with respect to domestic service employment taxes on a calendar year basis to instead make such reports on an annual basis.