Congressional representatives from the five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have rallied behind the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Equality Act, HR 4814, to extend the Supplemental Security Income program to the four U.S. territories that do not currently qualify for it: Puerto Rico, Guam, United States Virgin Islands (USVI), and American Samoa.
The bill was originally introduced by then-Rep. Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR) in 2013. When Pierluisi was elected Puerto Rico Governor and Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon became Resident Commissioner, she continued reintroduce the bill in each congressional session. The legislation was most recently reintroduced in July of 2025 by Rep. James Moylan (R), who represents Guam.
What is SSI?
SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is a program designed to help the elderly and people with disabilities. While it is administered by the Social Security Administration, it is different from Social Security.
Social Security is funded by taxes paid by workers and employers. Receiving Social Security payments depends on an individual’s work history and the amount they have paid into the system as a worker. SSI is funded from the general fund — basically, from income taxes. People receiving SSI must show that they have very limited resources, while Social Security is paid without regard to need.
Residents in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are eligible for SSI – even if they are not U.S. citizens – because they negotiated that benefit when they became a U.S. territory. People living in the four other territories cannot receive SSI. The District of Columbia was included in SSI from the program’s inception.
Why was Puerto Rico left out?
When SSI was enacted in 1972, Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code gave U.S. corporations significant tax advantages if they based a part of their company operations in Puerto Rico.
Section 936 provided that income generated in Puerto Rico could be essentially tax free. In 1992, a report from the Congressional Budget Office calculated that the federal government would lose – and companies would gain – $15 billion between 1993 and 1997 if the exemptions continued.
When Congress enacted SSI, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee explained that Puerto Rico would be exempted from the program because federal taxes did not apply in the U.S. territory. At the time, tax treatment of companies under Section 936 was very much on his mind. Taxes didn’t apply in Puerto Rico, so benefits couldn’t either. The ultimate result is that companies avoided taxes, and low-income individuals didn’t get benefits.
Although Congress ultimately repealed Section 936, Puerto Rican eligibility for SSI was never enacted.
Why don’t people in some U.S. territories receive SSI?
Congress is allowed to treat territories differently from states. Since both the Northern Mariana Islands and the District of Columbia can have SSI, current law does not limit SSI only to states. Yet the Supreme Court confirmed in the case of United States v. Vaello Madero in 2022 that Congress can make any rules it chooses for territories. Congress does not have to treat the territories equally with one another, nor does it have to treat territories equally with the fifty states.
All U.S. states are treated equally under federal law.
Arguments in the 2022 case pointed out that residents of Puerto Rico do not generally pay income taxes on the wages they earn on the Island. Since they don’t have equal responsibilities, then it is reasonable for Congress not to allow them equal benefits, the argument ran.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented. No recipients of SSI pay income tax regardless of where they live — if they did, they would not be needy enough to receive SSI. However, the majority of the Supreme Court Justices followed precedent that Congress may treat Puerto Rico differently from states as long as there is a rational basis for its actions.
What does the bill say?
The bill is simple. It amends current law that extends SSI coverage to states, CNMI and the District of Columbia, to instead cover states, CNMI, “the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.”
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. Observers, mindful of the current U.S. government shutdown and lack of movement generally this congressional session, do not have high expectations for the proposal to progress to passage any time in the near future.
Updated October 21, 2025 to reflect the impact of Section 936 on congressional rejection of SSI for Puerto Rico and that CNMI residents – including but not limited to U.S. citizens – qualify.
