Congress quietly modernizes poverty benefits for first time in 37 years
H.R. 7828 — Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2026 · Filed by Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) · 32 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill substantially increases income and resource limits for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a federal program for elderly, blind, and disabled individuals with limited income. It raises the general income exclusion from $240 to $1,892 annually, earned income exclusion from $780 to $6,149, and resource limits from $2,250 to $20,000 for individuals (and $1,500 to $10,000 for couples), with automatic inflation adjustments thereafter. The bill also eliminates the marriage penalty, removes restrictions on retirement accounts, extends SSI to U.S. territories, and simplifies rules around in-kind support and past-due benefit handling—benefiting approximately 7+ million low-income SSI recipients nationwide.
Why we flagged it
This bill directly increases income and resource limits for SSI recipients and expands program eligibility to U.S. territories. It is a straightforward social welfare enhancement with no apparent hidden agendas or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Significant federal budget impact from expanded eligibility and higher benefit floors not quantified in excerpt, with annual costs potentially growing unpredictably as CPI-E indexing may exceed general inflation over decades.
- Extension to Puerto Rico, USVI, Guam, and American Samoa creates administrative complexity and potential interstate equity questions, as territorial SSI beneficiaries may face different cost-of-living realities than mainland recipients using the same poverty guideline baseline.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.