Members of Congress rushed Thursday to announce legislation to close a loophole that has allowed Nazi war-crime suspects to collect millions of dollars in Social Security benefits.
Two Senate Democrats said they’ll try to push their bill to the Senate floor soon after Congress returns in November, saying they were stunned by an investigation that found four suspected Nazis who were forced out of the U.S. are still collecting Social Security.
“Nazi war criminals have been allowed to collect Social Security for far too long, and that needs to stop now,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “It is simply perverse that these criminals have been able to live comfortably abroad thanks to the American taxpayer. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will work hard to right this wrong once and for all.”
Congress is out on a nearly two-month vacation while most members campaign for re-election, so nothing can happen until they return.
But Mr. Schumer and Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat, plan to push their bill in a lame-duck session of Congress slated to begin in November. If that fails they’ll try early next year, according to a staffer familiar with the Senate bill.
House lawmakers are working on their own versions, too.
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Dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards have received millions in Social Security benefits, even after being kicked out of the country, an investigation by The Associated Press found. The loophole allegedly let the Justice Department use the payments as leverage, since Nazis could keep collecting the checks if they left the country voluntarily, but not if they were deported.
Some of those who received benefits include concentration-camp guards and a Nazi collaborator behind the arrest and execution of thousands of Jews, The Associated Press reported.
Four suspected Nazis are still alive and receiving benefits while living abroad in Europe, the investigation said.
The move to deny them benefits has bipartisan support. In the House, Reps. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, and Xavier Becerra, California Democrat, are working on a bill.
The two men, their respective party’s leaders on the Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, said their bill will stop payments to anyone who’s no longer a U.S. citizen because of his affiliation with Nazis.
“It’s unacceptable that some of the most heinous perpetrators of war crimes are receiving Social Security benefits on account of a loophole,” Mr. Becerra said. “Social Security must be preserved for hard-working individuals who’ve earned it, not for participants in the atrocities of the Holocaust.”
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Rep. Carolyn Maloney, New York Democrat, is also working on a bill to end federal benefits for Nazis. Her legislation is still being drafted, but is being modeled on the “Nazi Benefits Termination Act of 1999,” a bill she co-sponsored in the 106th Congress, a spokesman for Ms. Maloney’s office said.
Ms. Maloney plans to introduce her bill the first day Congress is back in session, her spokesman said.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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