I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 3926
To amend title II of the Social Security Act to improve social security
benefits for widows and widowers in two-income households.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE7, 2023
Ms. S
A´NCHEZ(for herself, Mr. COHEN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. CA´RDENAS,
Ms. S
CHAKOWSKY, Ms. NORTON, and Ms. PINGREE) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend title II of the Social Security Act to improve
social security benefits for widows and widowers in two-
income households.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Our Widows 4
and Widowers in Retirement Act’’ or the ‘‘POWR Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR WID-6
OWS AND WIDOWERS IN TWO-INCOME HOUSE-7
HOLDS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 9
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(1) WIDOWS.—Section 202(e) of the Social Se-1
curity Act (42 U.S.C. 402(e)) is amended— 2
(A) in paragraph (1)— 3
(i) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 4
‘‘and’’ at the end; 5
(ii) in subparagraph (C)(iii), by strik-6
ing ‘‘and’’ at the end; 7
(iii) by striking subparagraph (D); 8
(iv) by redesignating subparagraphs 9
(E) and (F) as subparagraphs (D) and 10
(E), respectively; and 11
(v) in the flush matter following sub-12
paragraph (E)(ii), as so redesignated, by 13
striking ‘‘or becomes entitled to an old-age 14
insurance benefit’’ and all that follows 15
through ‘‘such deceased individual,’’; 16
(B) by striking subparagraph (A) in para-17
graph (2) and inserting the following: 18
‘‘(2)(A) Except as provided in subsection 19
(k)(5), subsection (q), and subparagraph (D) of this 20
paragraph, such widow’s insurance benefit for each 21
month shall be equal to the greater of— 22
‘‘(i) the primary insurance amount (as de-23
termined for purposes of this subsection after 24
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application of subparagraphs (B) and (C)) of 1
such deceased individual; or 2
‘‘(ii) subject to paragraph (9), in the case 3
of a fully insured widow or surviving divorced 4
wife, 75 percent of the sum of any old-age or 5
disability insurance benefit for which the widow 6
or the surviving divorced wife is entitled for 7
such month and the primary insurance amount 8
(as determined for purposes of this subsection 9
after application of subparagraphs (B) and (C)) 10
of such deceased individual.’’; 11
(C) in paragraph (5)— 12
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 13
‘‘paragraph (1)(F)’’ and inserting ‘‘para-14
graph (1)(E)’’; and 15
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 16
‘‘paragraph (1)(F)(i)’’ and inserting 17
‘‘paragraph (1)(E)(i)’’; and 18
(D) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(9) For purposes of paragraph (2)(A)(ii), the 20
amount determined under such paragraph shall not 21
exceed the primary insurance amount for such 22
month of a hypothetical individual— 23
‘‘(A) who became entitled to old-age insur-24
ance benefits upon attaining early retirement 25
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age during the month in which the deceased in-1
dividual referred to in paragraph (1) became 2
entitled to old-age or disability insurance bene-3
fits, or died (before becoming entitled to such 4
benefits); and 5
‘‘(B) to whom wages and self-employment 6
income were credited in each of such hypo-7
thetical individual’s elapsed years (within the 8
meaning of section 215(b)(2)(B)(iii)) in an 9
amount equal to 1
1
∕3of the national average 10
wage index (as described in section 209(k)(1)) 11
for each such year.’’. 12
(2) W
IDOWERS.—Section 202(f) of the Social 13
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 402(f)) is amended— 14
(A) in paragraph (1)— 15
(i) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 16
‘‘and’’ at the end; 17
(ii) in subparagraph (C)(iii), by strik-18
ing ‘‘and’’ at the end; 19
(iii) by striking subparagraph (D); 20
(iv) by redesignating subparagraphs 21
(E) and (F) as subparagraphs (D) and 22
(E), respectively; and 23
(v) in the flush matter following sub-24
paragraph (E)(ii), as so redesignated, by 25
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striking ‘‘or becomes entitled to an old-age 1
insurance benefit’’ and all that follows 2
through ‘‘such deceased individual,’’; 3
(B) by striking subparagraph (A) in para-4
graph (2) and inserting the following: 5
‘‘(2)(A) Except as provided in subsection 6
(k)(5), subsection (q), and subparagraph (D) of this 7
paragraph, such widower’s insurance benefit for 8
each month shall be equal to the greater of— 9
‘‘(i) the primary insurance amount (as de-10
termined for purposes of this subsection after 11
application of subparagraphs (B) and (C)) of 12
such deceased individual; or 13
‘‘(ii) subject to paragraph (9), in the case 14
of a fully insured widower or surviving divorced 15
husband, 75 percent of the sum of any old-age 16
or disability insurance benefit for which the 17
widower or the surviving divorced husband is 18
entitled for such month and the primary insur-19
ance amount (as determined for purposes of 20
this subsection after application of subpara-21
graphs (B) and (C)) of such deceased indi-22
vidual.’’; 23
(C) in paragraph (5)— 24
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(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1
‘‘paragraph (1)(F)’’ and inserting ‘‘para-2
graph (1)(E)’’; and 3
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 4
‘‘paragraph (1)(F)(i)’’ and inserting 5
‘‘paragraph (1)(E)(i)’’; and 6
(D) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(9) For purposes of paragraph (2)(A)(ii), the 8
amount determined under such paragraph shall not 9
exceed the primary insurance amount for such 10
month of a hypothetical individual— 11
‘‘(A) who became entitled to old-age insur-12
ance benefits upon attaining early retirement 13
age during the month in which the deceased in-14
dividual referred to in paragraph (1) became 15
entitled to old-age or disability insurance bene-16
fits, or died (before becoming entitled to such 17
benefits); and 18
‘‘(B) to whom wages and self-employment 19
income were credited in each of such hypo-20
thetical individual’s elapsed years (within the 21
meaning of section 215(b)(2)(B)(iii)) in an 22
amount equal to 1
1
∕3of the national average 23
wage index (as described in section 209(k)(1)) 24
for each such year.’’. 25
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(b) HOLDINGSSI BENEFICIARIESHARMLESS.—For 1
purposes of determining the income of an individual to es-2
tablish eligibility for, and the amount of, benefits payable 3
under title XVI of the Social Security Act, the amount 4
of any benefit to which the individual is entitled under 5
title II of such Act shall be deemed not to exceed the 6
amount of the benefit that would be determined for such 7
individual under such title as in effect on the day before 8
the date of the enactment of this Act. 9
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 10
this section shall apply with respect to widow’s and wid-11
ower’s insurance benefits payable for months after Decem-12
ber 2023. 13
Æ
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