Peter Torkildsen: “Making sure that prisoners do not collect benefits while in jail is certainly one of them. Convicted criminals in jail…”

“Making sure that prisoners do not collect benefits while in jail is certainly one of them. Convicted criminals in jail should not collect taxpayer-funded payments while there. Period. But under a loophole in existing law, felons who are behind bars are denied Social Security benefits while convicts who are serving time for misdemeanors are allowed to continue receiving money. Because the definition of misdemeanor varies from State-to-State, this means some prisoners serving sentences in excess of 1 year continue to receive Federal money. This defies logic. While the taxpayers are paying to keep them in prison, prisoners should not receive any cash benefits. I propose simply that we cut off benefits to prisoners serving in prison. This simply makes sense. My proposed change has received bipartisan support in the subcommittee and the full committee, and I want to publicly thank the gentleman from Indiana and the gentleman from Kentucky for their assistance. This change has been partially included in this bill before the House today, and I hope my colleagues will also lend support.”