Sam Johnson Introduces Bill to Protect Taxpayer Dollars

As part of my ongoing effort to protect taxpayer dollars by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, I introduced legislation (H.R. 918) to stop individuals from abusing the system by “double-dipping” unemployment and disability benefits at the same time.

Under current law, some people can get both disability benefits and unemployment benefits. That just makes no sense! Think about it – disability benefits are for those who can’t work and unemployment benefits are for those who can work. That’s why I’ve introduced this common-sense legislation to protect taxpayers’ dollars. It will help ensure Social Security disability benefits are only for those who truly cannot work and for which this safety net was designed to help – including the nearly 8,000 Collin County folks who are disabled. With the disability program going broke next year, Congress should stop this double-dipping and now.

Social Security’s disability program is projected to be unable to pay full benefits in 2016. Earlier this year the House passed a measure offered by Johnson as part of its rules package. The measure would encourage Congress to work to fix Social Security by preventing Congress from raiding the retirement program to bail out the disability program.