II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 35
To amend title II of the Social Security Act to make available parental
leave benefits to parents following the birth or adoption of a child,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself and Mr. ROMNEY) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title II of the Social Security Act to make avail-
able parental leave benefits to parents following the birth
or adoption of a child, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘New Parents Act of 4
2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. PARENTAL LEAVE BENEFITS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title II of the Social Security Act 7
is amended by inserting after section 218 the following: 8
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‘‘SEC. 219. PARENTAL LEAVE BENEFITS. 1
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Every individual— 2
‘‘(1) who has— 3
‘‘(A) not less than 8 quarters of coverage, 4
4 of which are credited to calendar quarters 5
during the calendar year preceding the calendar 6
year in which the 1st month of the benefit pe-7
riod described in subsection (c) occurs; or 8
‘‘(B) not less than 12 quarters of coverage; 9
and 10
‘‘(2) who has filed an application for a parental 11
leave benefit with respect to a qualified child of the 12
individual, 13
shall be entitled to a parental leave benefit with respect 14
to such qualified child. 15
‘‘(b) B
ENEFITAMOUNT.—Such individual’s parental 16
leave benefit shall be an amount equal to the product of— 17
‘‘(1) the number of benefit months (not to ex-18
ceed 3) selected by the individual in the individual’s 19
application for a parental leave benefit, multiplied by 20
‘‘(2) an amount equal to the primary insurance 21
amount for the individual that would be determined 22
under section 215 if— 23
‘‘(A) the individual had attained age 62 in 24
the first month of the individual’s benefit pe-25
riod; and 26
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‘‘(B) the individual had become entitled to 1
an old-age insurance benefit under section 202 2
beginning with such month. 3
For the purposes of the preceding sentence, the elapsed 4
years referred to in section 215(b)(2)(B)(iii) shall not in-5
clude the year in which the individual’s benefit period be-6
gins, or any year thereafter. 7
‘‘(c) P
AYMENT OFBENEFIT.— 8
‘‘(1) S
ELECTION OF NUMBER OF BENEFIT 9
MONTHS.—In filing an application for a parental 10
leave benefit under this section, an individual shall 11
select the number of months (not to exceed 3) for 12
which the individual will receive a monthly payment 13
under such parental leave benefit (in this section re-14
ferred to as ‘benefit months’). 15
‘‘(2) E
LECTION OF BENEFIT MONTHS .—Not 16
later than 14 days before the start of any month in 17
the benefit period of an individual entitled to a pa-18
rental leave benefit, the individual may elect to treat 19
such month as a benefit month. The number of 20
months in such benefit period treated as benefit 21
months shall equal the number selected in the indi-22
vidual’s benefit application, and the Commissioner 23
may designate any month as a benefit month in any 24
case in which an individual does not elect to treat 25
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a sufficient number of months as benefit months be-1
fore the end of the benefit period. 2
‘‘(3) A
MOUNT OF MONTHLY PAYMENT .—The 3
amount of a monthly payment made in any benefit 4
month within a benefit period to an individual enti-5
tled to a parental leave benefit shall be an amount 6
equal to— 7
‘‘(A) the amount of the parental leave ben-8
efit determined for the individual under sub-9
section (b); divided by 10
‘‘(B) the number of benefit months se-11
lected by the individual pursuant to paragraph 12
(1) with respect to such benefit. 13
‘‘(4) D
EFINITION OF BENEFIT PERIOD .—For 14
purposes of this section, the term ‘benefit period’ 15
means, with respect to an individual entitled to a pa-16
rental leave benefit with respect to a qualified child, 17
the 1-year period beginning with the month after the 18
month in which the birth or adoption of the qualified 19
child occurs. 20
‘‘(d) B
ENEFITAPPLICATION.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner shall 22
ensure that the application for a parental leave ben-23
efit— 24
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‘‘(A) includes a notice, clearly written in 1
language that is easily understandable to the 2
reader, explaining that— 3
‘‘(i) failure to submit such proof or 4
documentation as the Commissioner may 5
require to demonstrate that the applicant 6
is the parent of the qualified child shall be 7
subject to criminal and civil penalties; 8
‘‘(ii) the full cost to the Trust Funds 9
of any amount received by an individual as 10
a parental leave benefit must be repaid 11
through reductions to old-age insurance 12
benefits payable to the individual in subse-13
quent months, or by other means; and 14
‘‘(iii) entitlement to a parental leave 15
benefit has no effect on the determination 16
of an individual’s entitlement to leave 17
under the Family and Medical Leave Act 18
of 1993; and 19
‘‘(B) requires an attestation by the indi-20
vidual submitting the application that— 21
‘‘(i) the individual expects to be the 22
parent of a qualified child throughout the 23
benefit period with respect to such applica-24
tion; 25
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‘‘(ii) the individual intends to use the 1
benefit to finance spending more time with 2
the qualified child at home and away from 3
employment during the benefit period; and 4
‘‘(iii) the individual consents to the 5
terms and conditions specified in the notice 6
described in subparagraph (A). 7
‘‘(2) O
PTION TO FILE SIMULTANEOUS APPLICA -8
TIONS.—The Commissioner of Social Security may 9
establish an option under which an individual may 10
file an application for a parental leave benefit under 11
this section with respect to a qualified child at the 12
same time the individual submits an application for 13
a social security account number for such qualified 14
child. 15
‘‘(3) O
NLINE AVAILABILITY .—The Commis-16
sioner of Social Security shall, as soon as practicable 17
after the date of enactment of this section, permit 18
an individual to apply for a parental leave benefit 19
through an internet website or other electronic 20
media. 21
‘‘(e) F
RAUDPREVENTION.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner of So-23
cial Security shall establish procedures to ensure the 24
prevention of fraud with respect to applications for 25
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parental leave benefits under this section, including 1
procedures for the submission of such proof or docu-2
mentation as the Commissioner may require to 3
verify the information contained in such an applica-4
tion. 5
‘‘(2) E
NFORCEMENT.—In any case in which an 6
individual willfully, knowingly, and with intent to de-7
ceive the Commissioner of Social Security fails to 8
comply with the procedures established under para-9
graph (1), the Commissioner may impose on such in-10
dividual, in addition to any other penalties that may 11
be prescribed by law— 12
‘‘(A) a civil monetary penalty of not more 13
than $7,500 for each such failure; and 14
‘‘(B) an assessment, in lieu of any dam-15
ages sustained by the United States because of 16
such failure, of not more than twice the amount 17
of the cost to the Federal Old-Age and Sur-18
vivors Insurance Trust Fund of any parental 19
leave benefit paid to the individual. 20
‘‘(f) B
ENEFITREPAYMENT.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An individual who is paid 22
a parental leave benefit under this section shall 23
repay the full cost of such benefit to the Federal 24
Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (as 25
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such amount is determined by the Commissioner) in 1
accordance with this subsection. 2
‘‘(2) O
LD-AGE INSURANCE BENEFIT OFFSET .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 4
paragraph (3), in the case of any individual de-5
scribed in paragraph (1) who becomes entitled 6
to an old-age insurance benefit, deductions shall 7
be made from each monthly payment of such 8
benefit (not to exceed the first 60 such monthly 9
payments) in such amounts, subject to subpara-10
graph (B), as the Commissioner of Social Secu-11
rity shall determine necessary to fully recover 12
the cost to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors 13
Insurance Trust Fund of any parental leave 14
benefit paid to the individual as of the month 15
in which the individual becomes entitled to an 16
old-age insurance benefit. 17
‘‘(B) N
OTIFICATION.—Not later than the 18
beginning of each calendar year, the Commis-19
sioner of Social Security shall notify each indi-20
vidual whose old-age insurance benefits are sub-21
ject to a deduction under subparagraph (A) 22
during such calendar year of the amount of the 23
deduction that will be applied to each monthly 24
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payment of such benefits during the calendar 1
year. 2
‘‘(3) A
LTERNATIVE INCREASE OF RETIREMENT 3
AGE.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of any in-5
dividual described in paragraph (1) who be-6
comes entitled to an old-age insurance benefit, 7
such individual may elect, at the time of appli-8
cation for such benefit, to be subject to a retire-9
ment age increase in accordance with this para-10
graph. Such election shall be irrevocable, and 11
an individual who makes such an election shall 12
not be subject to a deduction under paragraph 13
(2) for any month. 14
‘‘(B) R
ETIREMENT AGE INCREASE .—Not-15
withstanding section 216(l)(1), with respect to 16
an individual who makes an election under sub-17
paragraph (A), the retirement age of such indi-18
vidual shall be deemed to be— 19
‘‘(i) the retirement age determined 20
with respect to the individual under such 21
section; plus 22
‘‘(ii) the additional number of months 23
the Commissioner of Social Security shall 24
determine necessary to result in the full re-25
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covery of the cost to the Federal Old-Age 1
and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund of 2
any parental leave benefit paid to the indi-3
vidual as of the month in which the indi-4
vidual becomes entitled to an old-age in-5
surance benefit. 6
‘‘(C) I
NCREASE TO EARLIEST ENTITLE -7
MENT AGE.—In the case of an individual who 8
makes an election under subparagraph (A), not-9
withstanding subsection (a) of section 202, no 10
old-age insurance benefit shall be paid to such 11
individual for any month before the first month 12
throughout which the individual has attained 13
age 62 plus the additional number of months 14
determined for the individual under subpara-15
graph (B)(ii). 16
‘‘(4) O
THER RECOVERY METHODS .—In any 17
case in which the Commissioner of Social Security 18
determines that the cost to the Federal Old-Age and 19
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund of a parental leave 20
benefit paid to an individual cannot be fully recov-21
ered pursuant to paragraph (2) or (3)— 22
‘‘(A) such benefit shall be deemed, upon 23
the making of such determination, to be a pay-24
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ment of more than the correct amount for pur-1
poses of section 204; and 2
‘‘(B) the Commissioner may recover such 3
amounts by means of any method available to 4
the Commissioner under such section. 5
‘‘(5) P
ROJECTION OF REPAYMENT AMOUNT .— 6
As soon as practicable after the date of enactment 7
of this section, the Commissioner shall establish a 8
system to make available through an internet 9
website or other electronic media to each individual 10
who is paid a parental leave benefit under this sec-11
tion, beginning with the first month beginning after 12
the individual’s benefit period the projected amount 13
of the deduction to be made from each of the first 14
60 monthly payments of old-age insurance benefits 15
under paragraph (2), or if the individual so elects, 16
the additional number of months by which the indi-17
vidual’s retirement age would be increased under 18
paragraph (3), in order to fully repay the cost to the 19
Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust 20
Fund of any parental leave benefit paid to the indi-21
vidual, and a description of the assumptions used by 22
the Commissioner in making such projection. 23
‘‘(g) R
ELATIONSHIPWITHSTATELAW; EMPLOYER 24
B
ENEFITS.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This section does not pre-1
empt or supersede any provision of State or local 2
law that authorizes a State or political subdivision to 3
provide paid parental or family medical leave bene-4
fits similar to the benefits provided under this sec-5
tion. 6
‘‘(2) G
REATER BENEFITS ALLOWED .—Nothing 7
in this Act shall be construed to diminish the obliga-8
tion of an employer to comply with any contract, col-9
lective bargaining agreement, or employment benefit 10
program or plan that provides greater benefits for 11
leave or other leave rights to individuals than the 12
benefits for leave or leave rights established under 13
this Act. 14
‘‘(h) S
UNSET.—No application for parental leave ben-15
efits under this section may be filed in any calendar year 16
if the OASDI trust fund ratio (as defined in section 17
215(i)) for such calendar year or for the year following 18
such calendar year is projected, based on the intermediate 19
projections in the most recent (as of January 1 of such 20
calendar year) annual report issued under section 21
201(c)(2), to be less than 20 percent. 22
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 23
‘‘(1) the term ‘qualified child’ means, with re-24
spect to an individual for a benefit period, a biologi-25
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cal child or legally adopted child of the individual (as 1
determined by the Commissioner of Social Security) 2
who— 3
‘‘(A) will not attain 18 years of age before 4
the end of such benefit period; and 5
‘‘(B) will be residing with, and under the 6
care of, the individual during the benefit period 7
as determined by the Commissioner.’’. 8
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 9
(1) N
ONPAYMENT PROVISIONS .—Section 202 of 10
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 402) is amend-11
ed— 12
(A) in subsection (n)(1)(A), by striking 13
‘‘under this section or section 223’’ and insert-14
ing ‘‘under this section, section 219, or section 15
223’’; 16
(B) in subsection (t), in paragraphs (1) 17
and (10), by striking ‘‘under this section or 18
under section 223’’ each place it appears and 19
inserting ‘‘under this section, under section 20
219, or under section 223’’; 21
(C) in subsection (u)(1), by striking 22
‘‘under this section or section 223’’ and insert-23
ing ‘‘under this section, section 219, or section 24
223’’; and 25
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(D) in subsection (x)— 1
(i) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking 2
‘‘under this section or under section 223’’ 3
and inserting ‘‘under this section, under 4
section 219, or under section 223’’; and 5
(ii) in paragraph (2), by striking 6
‘‘under this section or section 223’’ and in-7
serting ‘‘under this section, section 219, or 8
section 223’’. 9
(2) D
ELAYED RETIREMENT CREDITS .—Section 10
202(w) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 11
402(w)) is amended by inserting after ‘‘age 70’’ 12
each place it appears the following: ‘‘(or, in the case 13
of an individual whose retirement age is increased 14
under section 219(f)(3), age 70 plus the number of 15
months by which the individual’s retirement age is 16
so increased)’’. 17
(3) V
OLUNTARY SUSPENSION OF BENEFITS .— 18
Section 202(z)(1)(A)(ii) of the Social Security Act 19
(42 U.S.C. 402(z)(1)(A)(ii)) is amended by striking 20
‘‘the age of 70’’ and inserting ‘‘age 70 (or, in the 21
case of an individual whose retirement age is in-22
creased under section 219(f)(3), age 70 plus the 23
number of months by which the individual’s retire-24
ment age is so increased)’’. 25
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(4) NUMBER OF BENEFIT COMPUTATION 1
YEARS.—Section 215(b)(2)(A) of such Act (42 2
U.S.C. 415(b)(2)(A)) is amended— 3
(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘, and’’ and 4
inserting a semicolon; 5
(B) in clause (ii), by striking the period 6
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 7
(C) by inserting after clause (ii) the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(iii) in the case of an individual who is entitled 10
to a parental leave benefit under section 219, by the 11
number of years equal to one-fifth of such individ-12
ual’s elapsed years (disregarding any resulting frac-13
tional part of a year), but not by more than 5 14
years.’’. 15
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 16
this section shall apply with respect to applications for pa-17
rental leave benefits filed after 2023. 18
Æ
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