Seeks to reverse Judge William Young's decision that ordered island residents' access to SSI, SNAP and Medicare Part D low-income subsidies (LIS).
Sunday, September 13, 2020 - El Nuevo Día - By Alex Figueroa Cancel
The U.S. government went to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to try to reverse a decision that declared unconstitutional to deny residents of Puerto Rico the benefits of three federal programs that exist in the states.
This was reported by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark in a motion before Judge William Young last Friday.
Bossert Clark served the appeal in Boston on behalf of the federal secretaries of Health, Agriculture and the commissioner of Social Security.
Young heard the case in Puerto Rico as a "visiting" judge in San Juan, as he is from the Massachusetts District Court.
In response to a lawsuit filed by nine residents of Puerto Rico, on August 3, Young ordered the U.S . government to provide Puerto Rico residents with access to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy (LIS) programs, which covers prescription drugs.
This appeal comes at a time when the U.S. government also went to the U.S. Supreme Court with a petition for certiorari to try to reverse a similar decision in the case of Jose Luis Vaello Madero.
In that case, the Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the declaration of unconstitutionality issued in federal court in San Juan by Judge Gustavo Gelpí, regarding the exclusion of island residents from the SSI program.
The appeal submitted to the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Wall, President Donald Trump's Solicitor General, emphasized that Puerto Rico residents do not contribute to the U.S. Treasury with federal taxes on their income that subsidize the programs to which access is requested on the island.
"Congress has a legitimate interest in avoiding a unilateral fiscal relationship under which Puerto Rico shares the financial benefits but not the financial burden of statehood, and declining to include Puerto Rico in the SSI program is a rational way to advance that interest," Wall said.
As the Boston Circuit did in the Vaello Madero case, Young rejected the federal government's rationale - nonpayment of contributions, cost and disruption of the economy - for denying access to the SSI, SNAP and LIS programs in Puerto Rico.
Contrary to the facts of Vaello Madero, the nine plaintiffs in this case - Sixta Gladys Peña Martínez, Nélida Santiago Álvarez, María Luisa Aguilar Galindez, Gamaly Vélez Santiago, Victor Ramón Ilarraza Acevedo, Maritza Rosado Concepción, Rosa Maria Ilarraza Rosa, Ramón Luis Rivera Rivera and Yomara Valderrama - have not collected SSI benefits while living in Puerto Rico, nor have they had access to the other two federal programs.