EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Ohio Congressman Michael Rulli and Pennsylvania Congressman Chris Deluzio have introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting Supplemental Security Income for disaster victims.
The proposed legislation, inspired by the 2023 East Palestine train derailment, seeks to ensure that SSI recipients maintain their benefits after receiving settlement payments following a tragedy.
“There’s going to be 17 different counties involved,” Rulli said, referring to the impact of the bill.
“There’s going to be 17 different counties involved in and it has to do with SSI, and what we found out is people who were involved in the recovery of funds In East Palestine were getting screwed over by the allowments the government was doing for SSI,” Rulli said.
The bill is retroactive, covering the East Palestine settlement and future settlements related to disasters.
“We heard from constituents on SSI that accepting the East Palestine settlement money meant you would see a decrease in benefits, or loss of eligibility of the SSI. So that’s the heart of the bill right there is SSI, and the East Palestine settlements that the money decreased the benefits of the SSI allowment.”
Rulli said the bill being a bipartisan effort is an important one for him to see the people needed help have access to resources.
“I think there’s humanity that can step in and even in the divisive world of politics sometimes gets really ugly, I think the human aspect of life is still there, and I think congressman Deluzio and I are here to show that to the public that put political parties aside let’s take care of these people. We can’t mess with these SSI people, these are good constituents, they worked their life away, and we have to protect them right now.”