WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's clear the country won’t be adding any more stars to the American flag any time soon.

Efforts to make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico official states have stalled in Congress.

However, while D.C. citizens still have access to many government programs that citizens of all the 50 states enjoy, Puerto Rico citizens are ineligible for many. 

Take, for instance, Supplemental Security Income, SSI.

It’s a program that helps Americans with illnesses or disabilities get by.

Those who live in D.C. qualify for it, but those who live in Puerto Rico do not, even though people in both places pay federal taxes.

Why? When Congress passed SSI decades ago, they didn’t include residents of the island.

SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE

Well, the debate over the rights of Puerto Rico citizens will be front and center in the Supreme Court this week.

The case is called United States v. Vaello-Madero.

Oral arguments are on Tuesday.

It’s about a man named Jose Luis Vaello-Madero. In 2013, he moved from his home of 28 years in New York City back to Puerto Rico. When he became ill he filed for SSI benefits.

If he moved to, let’s say, Florida instead, it would have been no problem. However, when the Social Security Administration learned where he moved, they cut him off from the program and demanded he pay back $28,000 worth of benefits he had already received. 

The Biden administration is split on the issue.

President Joe Biden has issued statements calling for Puerto Rico citizens to be covered by government programs like SSI.

“There can be no second-class citizens,” Biden said. 

Biden’s Justice Department, however, has done the opposite, actually arguing against Vaello-Madero in court.

"The Constitution vests Congress, not the courts, with responsibility for making appropriate changes,” attorneys wrote in legal briefs.

While the high court is not expected to issue an opinion on this case for months, the outcome could dramatically change what Puerto Rico’s 3 million-plus residents are entitled to.

That would potentially make government programs even more costly to American taxpayers since more people would be eligible to enroll.

WASHINTON, D.C. -- Senate Democrats are unveiling a plan to extend additional unemployment benefits.

This is for the extra $600 every week, on top of what states already offer for unemployment.

The new proposal would decrease the added benefit as the unemployment rate drops.

The Economic Policy Institute supports that plan, saying the additional benefit should stay in place as long as needed.

“People are really, really uncertain about how this is going to unfold over the coming months, so putting some arbitrary end date on any provisions related to supporting the economy and the people in it during this crisis makes no sense,” said Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

The institute tells us the expansion makes a huge difference, not just for the individual, but for all of us. It estimates if it cuts off at the end of July, that could cost the U.S. 5 million jobs over the next year. That's because less spending creates a further drag on the economy.

However, Republicans say the expanded benefit gives people a reason to not go back to work.

Some studies have found the economy could actually be worse off if people don't get working again.

The American Enterprise Institute agrees, saying the move was just meant to get through the initial lockdown.

“This is becoming less of a, the pandemic caused us to initiate lockdowns and people are at home, and now it's just we have a large number of unemployed people, what should we do to assist them, and $600 addition to unemployment checks in a bad economy is a really unprecedented step,” said Matt Weidinger with the American Enterprise Institute.

The group says extending the benefits could set that precedent for Congress to act similarly for any future recessions.

WASHINGTON — Should disabled, low-income Americans who can't work be entitled to financial help from the federal government?

Since the 1970s, the answer has been yes.

However, for millions of Americans who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the program has often come with more frustration than gratitude.

WHAT IS SSI?

Supplemental Security Income, often referred to as SSI, began in 1972 with a new law passed by Congress.

It was meant to help disabled Americans with little income, many of whom were leaving institutions at the time society began to close more of those facilities.

More than 8 million adults receive the benefit, which is administered by the Social Security Administration.

THOUGHTS FROM RECIPIENTS

Tyeishia Freeman’s life changed 9 years ago.

"In 2012, I was in a car accident that killed a man," Freeman said, choking back tears.

"It changed my life forever," Freeman said.

"I wasn’t myself anymore,” Freeman added.

One of the biggest changes?

Freeman's anxiety and PTSD from the accident meant she could no longer work full time.

“I am a single mother of seven," Freeman said.

Like many Americans, Freeman had no clue SSI existed until a doctor suggested it as a way to provide for her family.

“I had no clue what SSI was,” Freeman added.

HOW MUCH IS GIVEN

The maximum SSI benefit for an individual is $794 a month.

That’s around $9,530 a year, which is below the poverty line of $12,880 a year.

“I am supposed to live, how?” Freeman said.

The amount isn’t what frustrates Freeman the most, however. It’s the rules.

Freeman believes she is capable of working a few hours a week somewhere.

SSI guidelines state, however, that once you earn more than $65 a month in outside income, your monthly benefit gets reduced.

She can’t have more than $2,000 a month in savings either. She says that takes away her drive to work.

“There goes a person like me with anxiety,” Freeman jokes.

FRUSTRATING FOR EXPERTS

Deborah Wagner is with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati.

"It hasn’t kept up with the times,” Wagner said of the program.

She says SSI administers know how much money recipients receive, because to enroll in the program you must grant access.

"Social Security can look at all of your bank accounts,” Wagner said.

Wagner says the complicated rules even impact marriages.

Let's say you have two people on SSI, each receiving $794 a month.

If they decided to get married, the new combined benefit is only $1,191.

That’s less than what they would earn if they stayed single.

“Through the years, I’ve called myself anti-cupid," Wagner said. "I’ve counseled people — don’t get married. You’re going to lose money."

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION

All of this begs the question: Is anything being done to possibly change or update the program?

The answer is yes, and changes could be included in the upcoming Democratic spending bill.

“We are going to get something done on this," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, told Scripps' Joe St. George in an interview recently.

"We are at least raising the threshold so people can begin to work and make a little more and save a little more," Brown said.

Brown is chairman of the influential Senate Banking Committee. He thinks rules should be relaxed.

For the moment, changes could make their way into the Democratic spending bill being negotiated in Congress.

In the meantime, Freeman has this message for officials in Washington:

"Just give us a little mercy," she said.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will land in Florida via Air Force One a few hours before President-elect Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

While he will lose access to the presidential aircraft at noon ET, he will still enjoy several perks of being a former president for the rest of his life.

COST TO TAXPAYERS

Even though some former presidents earn money through speeches and books after they leave office, taxpayers do provide a stipend.

Former presidents receive around $219,000 annually and raises are given to match what current cabinet secretaries receive.

Former presidents also get Secret Service protection valued at about $1 million year year, and are able to employ staffers and use office space.

For the first 30 months after leaving office, $150,000/year is allocated for staffers. That drops to $96,000 annually after that.

In recent years, former presidents have spent around $500,000/year of taxpayer money for office space locations.

Former presidents are also entitled access to mail privileges, according to a recently published government report.

IMPEACHMENT IMPACT

The perks are guaranteed under the Former Presidents Act, but if the Senate votes to convict Trump during the upcoming impeachment trial that could change.

Benefits, could in theory, be suspended by the Senate if they vote to convict him on the Article of Impeachment passed by the House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether it is unconstitutional to exclude people living in Puerto Rico from Supplemental Social Security Income.

The justices said Monday they would hear an appeal, first filed by the Trump administration, of a lower-court ruling that held that residents of the U.S. territory should have the same access to SSI benefits as older, disabled and blind Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The administration argued that a pair of 40-year-old Supreme Court decisions already upheld the federal law that created SSI and excluded Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories from it.

In recent months, a federal judge ruled that Puerto Rico residents should have access to other federal welfare benefits from which they have been excluded as well. A federal judge in Guam said residents of that Pacific island also should be able to collect SSI.

A separate program, Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, covers residents of the territories, but it has more stringent eligibility requirements and pays less generous benefits than SSI.

Thousands of people in the Tri-State continue to wait for unemployment benefits, even as state systems have paid out tens of billions of dollars in unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic.

In "The Rebound: Lost in the System," WCPO takes a closer look at where unemployment systems fall short, how many people are impacted and where they can find help.

First, Anchor Julie O'Neill dives into how states are reassessing their unemployment systems and how people have been left waiting for answers.

Evan Millward and Brian Niesz break down Cincinnati unemployment data, which show unemployment was worse during the pandemic than during the Great Recession. The good news: The Tri-State's unemployment situation is improving rapidly as the pandemic eases.

Courtney Francisco explores the causes behind the Tri-State's unemployment backlog, how systems deal with fraud, and what officials have done to get help to those who need it.

With the restaurant industry facing an employee shortage, Brian Mains reports how Freestore Foodbank and CityLink are ramping up culinary programs to bolster the local workforce.

Experts say there is a definite correlation between pandemic unemployment and mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Lisa Smith reports on Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, which has specific programs to connect people living with mental illness with employment.

Many job seekers are now realizing they haven't done an in-person job interview after well over a year dominated by remote work and Zoom interviews. John Matarese has tips to help job seekers excel at their next interview.

Watch "The Rebound: Lost in the System" on WCPO 9 News and on your favorite streaming device Thursday.

American employers added just 266,000 jobs last month, a sharp downturn from March. 

It's a sign businesses are struggling to fill open positions even as the country recovers economically from the pandemic. 

Construction companies and manufacturers, particularly automakers, slowed hiring last month due to parts shortages. 

Meanwhile, the hospitality sector, which includes restaurants, hotels and venues, is basically begging for workers. 

Lots of jobs are going unfilled because people have changed fields or left the workforce during the last year of the pandemic. And of course, some unemployed Americans are still afraid to go back to work due to the coronavirus pandemic and stubbornly high infection rates in certain parts of the country.

"Here we are in an empty dining room where normally, for lunch, we would be open and serving, you know, a couple of hundred guests," business owner Mac Hay said, "But this year, because of our staff shortage, both with U.S. workers but also workers from overseas, we've we can't fill the demand."

In response, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling on Washington to immediately stop paying Americans an extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits. It's saying that boost is incentivizing some Americans to not return to work. 

The group also said the Biden administration's supplemental benefits means about 1 in 4 Americans is making more money unemployed than they earned while they were working.

This story originally reported by Gage Jackson on Newsy.com.