Davis Opening Statement at Joint Social Security and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Hearing on Supporting Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities

(As prepared for delivery)

I thank the Chairman and our witnesses for this discussion on how to better serve Americans with disabilities, including adults and children with severe disabilities who rely on Supplemental Security Income – or SSI. 

Yet today, vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities face increasing hardship from extreme Republican policies - the chaotic Trump tariffs that raise prices for the essentials needed to live, the evisceration of federal grants that shutter key services, and massive staff reductions at the Social Security Administration that make it harder to get benefits.

I recently spent three hours waiting with a family member for an appointment at a Social Security office. The amazing staff took the care needed to serve everyone, but President Trump’s forcing out more than 7,000 employees means there are not enough people to do the work. The Commissioner assured me that my experience was an outlier, but all of us are hearing from constituents and friends about people waiting months for appointments and hours for service. 

I want people with disabilities to have the best opportunities to thrive, but these customer service concerns coupled with the recent Republican law kicking millions of Americans off Medicaid and food assistance and the Trump administration’s track record of using administrative processes to cut benefits create a real danger of Americans not getting their SSA benefits. Further, losing health insurance and food assistance undermines the health of people with disabilities and the foundation of their ability to work. 

Successful strategies to help SSA beneficiaries work as much as they are able are labor-intensive and cost money.  They require frequent benefit adjustments, temporary eligibility adjustments, or individualized help. It is not tenable to add to the workload of SSA’s understaffed offices when they are struggling just to process benefit applications and answer questions from the public. 

One way to reduce work for SSA staff and help working beneficiaries is to increase the antiquated “asset limit” that cuts off SSI benefits any time recipients have more than $2,000 in their bank accounts. That limit was set over 40 years ago. It discourages work and is a major driver of errors in SSI benefit payments. Together with my Republican colleague, Mr. Fitzpatrick, I lead the widely-supported SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act to increase the asset limit. 

Another way to simultaneously help people and reduce work for SSA is to keep in place the regulation simplifying SSI applications for seniors and people with disabilities who are part of poor families who need and receive SNAP benefits. The Trump Administration has suggested it might end this senior-friendly policy.

SSI programs help pay for necessities, like food and housing.  Given the vulnerability of those relying on SSA benefits, we must take care to do no harm.  The recent Republican law together  with prior Republican plans to save $50 billion in disability costs with new approaches to increase labor force participation make me wary of Republican efforts to help people with disabilities work. 

Americans with disabilities have demonstrated that if they think they’re able to work, they will try – even though they have met stringent eligibility requirements showing they cannot substantially work. Democrats support helping people with disabilities work and increase their income when they are able, but I will reject any effort to weaken disability supports or any offer to help some people with disabilities by cutting benefits for others. 

For good, innovative ideas to work, we will first need to get the basics right – a well-staffed and funded SSA, quality health insurance coverage, and the ability to save some of your earnings without fear of losing disability benefits. I hope that we can find common ground to improve disability benefits, and I thank our witnesses today for their ideas. 

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