I 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 930 To amend titles II and XVIII of the Social Security Act to eliminate the disability insurance benefits waiting period for individuals with disabil- ities, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY4, 2025 Mr. D OGGETT(for himself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. B EYER, Mr. BISHOP, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. BOYLEof Pennsylvania, Ms. B ROWNLEY, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CASAR, Ms. CASTORof Florida, Mr. C ASTROof Texas, Ms. CHU, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COHEN, Ms. CROCKETT, Mr. C ROW, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Mrs. MCCLAINDELANEY, Ms. D ELAURO, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. LEGER F ERNANDEZ, Mr. FIELDS, Mrs. FLETCHER, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. G ARCI´Aof Illinois, Ms. GARCIAof Texas, Mr. GOLDENof Maine, Mr. G OLDMANof New York, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. GREENof Texas, Mr. G RIJALVA, Mrs. HAYES, Ms. HOYLEof Oregon, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JOHN- SONof Georgia, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. LEEof Pennsylvania, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. M AGAZINER, Mrs. MCBATH, Ms. MENG, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Mr. N ORCROSS, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. PIN- GREE, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. S CANLON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. SHERRILL, Mr. SOTO, Mrs. S YKES, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. THOMPSONof Mississippi, Ms. TITUS, Mr. T ONKO, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. TURNERof Texas, Mr. VEASEY, Ms. V ELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ, Ms. WATERS, Mrs. WATSON C OLEMAN, Ms. WILLIAMSof Georgia, and Ms. WILSONof Florida) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend titles II and XVIII of the Social Security Act VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 930 IH to eliminate the disability insurance benefits waiting pe- riod for individuals with disabilities, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Stop the Wait Act of 4 2025’’. 5 SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF DISABILITY WAITING PERIOD FOR 6 SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY INSURANCE 7 BENEFITS. 8 (a) E LIMINATION OF WAITINGPERIOD FORDIS-9 ABILITYINSURANCEBENEFITS.—Section 223 of the So-10 cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 423) is amended— 11 (1) in subsection (a)— 12 (A) in paragraph (1), in the matter fol-13 lowing subparagraph (E)— 14 (i) by striking ‘‘disability insurance 15 benefit (i) for each month’’ and all that 16 follows through ‘‘, or (iii)’’ and inserting 17 ‘‘disability insurance benefit’’; and 18 (ii) by striking ‘‘, but only if’’ and all 19 that follows through ‘‘under such dis-20 ability’’; and 21 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘as 22 though he had attained age 62 in—’’ and all 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 930 IH that follows through ‘‘such disability insurance 1 benefits,’’ and inserting ‘‘as though the indi-2 vidual had attained age 62 in the first month 3 for which the individual becomes entitled to 4 such disability insurance benefits,’’; and 5 (2) in subsection (c)— 6 (A) in the subsection heading, by striking 7 ‘‘Definitions of Insured Status and Waiting Pe-8 riod’’ and inserting ‘‘Definition of Insured Sta-9 tus’’; 10 (B) by striking ‘‘For purposes of this sec-11 tion’’ and all that follows through ‘‘in any 12 month if—’’ and inserting ‘‘For purposes of 13 this section, an individual shall be insured for 14 disability insurance benefits in any month if— 15 ’’; 16 (C) by striking paragraph (2); 17 (D) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 18 and (B) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively 19 (and adjusting the margins accordingly); 20 (E) in paragraph (2) (as so redesig-21 nated)— 22 (i) by redesignating clauses (i), (ii), 23 and (iii) as subparagraphs (A), (B), and 24 (C), respectively; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 930 IH (ii) in subparagraph (C) (as so redes-1 ignated), by striking ‘‘clause (i)’’ and in-2 serting ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’; and 3 (F) in the matter following subparagraph 4 (C) (as so redesignated), by striking ‘‘subpara-5 graph (B) of this paragraph’’ each place it ap-6 pears and inserting ‘‘this paragraph’’. 7 (b) P HASE-DOWN OFWAITINGPERIOD FORDIS-8 ABILITYINSURANCEBENEFITS.—For purposes of appli-9 cations for disability insurance benefits filed on or after 10 the date of enactment of this Act and before January 1, 11 2030, section 223(c)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 12 U.S.C. 423(c)(2)) shall be applied by making the following 13 substitutions: 14 (1) For applications filed in calendar years 15 2025, 2026, or 2027, substitute ‘‘three’’ for ‘‘five’’ 16 and ‘‘fifteenth’’ for ‘‘seventeenth’’ each place it ap-17 pears. 18 (2) For applications filed in calendar year 19 2028, substitute ‘‘two’’ for ‘‘five’’ and ‘‘fourteenth’’ 20 for ‘‘seventeenth’’ each place it appears. 21 (3) For applications filed in calendar year 22 2029, substitute ‘‘one’’ for ‘‘five’’ and ‘‘thirteenth’’ 23 for ‘‘seventeenth’’ each place it appears. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 930 IH (c) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 1 subsection (a) shall take effect on January 1, 2030, and 2 apply with respect to applications for disability insurance 3 benefits filed on or after January 1, 2029. 4 (d) C ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Effective January 5 1, 2030: 6 (1) Section 223(a)(1)(A) of the Social Security 7 Act (42 U.S.C. 423(a)(1)(A)) is amended by striking 8 ‘‘(c)(1)’’ and inserting ‘‘(c)’’. 9 (2) Section 7(d)(3) of the Railroad Retirement 10 Act of 1974 (45 U.S.C. 231f(d)(3)) is amended by 11 striking ‘‘223(c)(1)’’ and inserting ‘‘223(c)’’. 12 SEC. 3. MEDICARE ELIGIBILITY FOR CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS 13 DURING WAITING PERIOD FOR SOCIAL SECU-14 RITY DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS. 15 (a) E LIMINATION OFWAITINGPERIOD FORCERTAIN 16 I NDIVIDUALS WITHOUTMINIMUMESSENTIALCOV-17 ERAGE.— 18 (1) I N GENERAL.—Section 226 the Social Secu-19 rity Act (42 U.S.C. 426) is amended by adding at 20 the end the following new subsection: 21 ‘‘(j)(1) For purposes of applying this section in the 22 case of an eligible individual described in paragraph (2), 23 the following special rules shall apply: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 930 IH ‘‘(A) Subsection (b)(2) shall be applied as 1 if there were no requirement for any entitle-2 ment to benefits, or status, for a period of 24 3 months prior to receiving such benefits or sta-4 tus. 5 ‘‘(B) The entitlement under such sub-6 section shall be available retroactively to the 7 first day of the first month (rather than twen-8 ty-fifth month) of entitlement or status. 9 ‘‘(C) Subsection (f) shall not be applied. 10 ‘‘(2) For purposes of applying this section, an 11 ‘eligible individual’ is an individual, with respect to 12 a month— 13 ‘‘(A) who has not yet attained the age of 14 65; 15 ‘‘(B) who is entitled to benefits described 16 in subparagraph (A) of subsection (b)(2); and 17 ‘‘(C) with respect to whom section 18 5000A(e)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code 19 of 1986 would apply if the reference to ‘8 per-20 cent’ in such section were a reference to ‘8.5 21 percent’.’’. 22 (2) C ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 1811 23 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395c) is 24 amended— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 930 IH (A) at the end of paragraph (2), by strik-1 ing ‘‘and’’; 2 (B) by striking the period at the end and 3 inserting ‘‘, and’’; and 4 (C) by adding at the end the following new 5 paragraph: 6 ‘‘(4) eligible individuals (as described in section 7 226(j)(2)).’’. 8 (b) S PECIALENROLLMENTPERIOD ANDCOVERAGE 9 A PPLICATION FORCERTAININDIVIDUALSWITHOUTMIN-10 IMUMESSENTIALCOVERAGE.—Section 1837 of the Social 11 Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395p) is amended by adding at 12 the end the following new subsection: 13 ‘‘(o)(1) In applying this section in the case of an eligi-14 ble individual who is entitled to benefits under part A pur-15 suant to the operation of section 226(j), the following spe-16 cial rules shall apply: 17 ‘‘(A) The initial enrollment period under 18 subsection (d) shall begin on the first day of the 19 first month in which the individual satisfies the 20 requirement of section 1836(a)(1). 21 ‘‘(B) In applying subsection (g)(1), the ini-22 tial enrollment period shall begin on the first 23 day of the first month of entitlement to dis-24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 930 IH ability insurance benefits referred to in such 1 subsection. 2 ‘‘(2) In applying this section in the case of an 3 individual who became entitled to benefits under 4 part A, but had not been entitled to such benefits 5 for a period of 24 calendar months as of the date 6 of enactment of the Stop the Wait Act of 2025, and 7 is entitled to such benefits pursuant to the applica-8 tion of section 226(j), the initial enrollment period 9 under subsection (d) for such individual shall begin 10 on the first day of the first month following the date 11 of enactment of the Stop the Wait Act of 2025 and 12 shall end seven months later.’’. 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:22 Mar 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H930.IH H930 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS