42 U.S.C. § 434 — Demonstration project authority

(a) Authority. (1) In general. The Commissioner of Social Security must design and run experiments and demonstration projects meant to help people with disabilities stay attached to the workforce. These projects test the pros and cons of: (A) different ways to treat the work activity of people getting disability insurance benefits or disabled-based benefits - such as reducing benefits based on how much someone earns, to encourage them to return to work; (B) changing other rules that apply to these individuals - like making the "trial work period" longer, changing the 24-month wait for hospital insurance, changing how the disability program is run, referring people to rehabilitation earlier, and getting employers and others more involved in creating and running new kinds of rehabilitation; and (C) using a "sliding scale" to reduce benefits, testing different versions of how much of a person's earnings offsets their benefit, how long the offset period lasts, and how earned income gets calculated - all aimed at saving money for the Trust Funds or otherwise helping run the disability program better. (2) Authority for expansion of scope. The Commissioner can expand a project to include, or limit it to, any group of applicants whose impairments can reasonably be presumed disabling for that project, as long as the project's own terms define how far that presumption goes. (b) Requirements. Every experiment or project must be big enough, and run widely enough, to properly evaluate the different methods being tested. At the same time, the results must be reliable enough to apply generally to how the disability program actually runs, without locking the program into any one system, locally or nationwide. (c) Authority to waive compliance with benefits requirements. For any experiment or project that started on or before December 30, 2021, the Commissioner may waive the disability program's normal benefit rules, and the rules in section 1320b-19 of this title, as far as needed for a thorough test. The Secretary may also waive certain Medicare benefit rules (subchapter XVIII), if the Commissioner asks. But no project can actually start until at least 90 days after the Commissioner sends a written report to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. That report must fully describe the project - its goals, expected yearly and total costs, and expected start and finish dates. The Commissioner must also send these committees periodic progress reports, including, when appropriate, detailed recommendations for changing the law or how it's administered. (d) Reports. (1) Interim reports. By September 30 each year, the Commissioner must send those same two congressional committees an annual report on how the experiments and projects are progressing, along with any related data the Commissioner thinks is useful. (2) Termination and final report. The Commissioner could not start any new project under this section after December 31, 2021, and cannot run any such project past December 31, 2022. Within 90 days after any experiment or project ends, the Commissioner must send those committees a final report on it. (e) Additional requirements. The Commissioner cannot force anyone to take part in an experiment or project. The Commissioner must make sure: (1) people join only after giving informed written consent, meeting the same standard the Commissioner sets for any research involving human subjects at risk; (2) anyone who agrees to take part can back out at any time; and (3) each project is expected to produce results that are statistically meaningful. (f) Promoting opportunity demonstration project. (1) In general. The Commissioner had to run a special 5-year project under this subsection, starting no later than January 1, 2017. (2) Benefit offset. For anyone taking part who is otherwise entitled to a disability benefit under section 423(a)(1) of this title for a given month: (A) that month's benefit gets cut by $1 for every $2 the person earns above their "impairment-related work expenses" for that month, but the benefit can never drop below $0 (this doesn't apply to any benefit for a month before the person's entitlement was first decided); (B) if that cut brings the person's benefit all the way to $0, then no related benefit can be paid that month based on that person's wages or self-employment income either; (C) the person's entitlement to these benefits does not end just because of earnings - it only ends starting the first month the benefit is fully cut to $0 (and for that period, the usual "trial work period" and "extended period of eligibility" rules do not apply); and (D) if such a person also qualifies for Medicare hospital insurance because of their disability status, and that status or entitlement ends under (C), the law still treats them as entitled to Medicare (or as still holding railroad-retirement status) for as long as their disabling condition continues and they would otherwise have qualified, but never for more than 93 months. (3) Impairment-related work expenses. Normally, for purposes of the offset in (2)(A), a person's "impairment-related work expenses" for a month are treated as equal to a "minimum threshold amount" the Commissioner sets - an amount that cannot be more than what's needed to show the person actually performed work in that month, under section 422(c)(4)(A) of this title; the Commissioner may test multiple threshold amounts. If a person's actual, itemized impairment-related work expenses for a month are higher than that threshold amount, their real itemized expenses are used instead - but only expenses for which the person gives the Commissioner a proper itemized accounting count. "Itemized impairment-related work expenses" here means the amount excluded from earnings under section 423(d)(4)(A) of this title when deciding if the person can do substantial gainful work. No matter what, a person's impairment-related work expenses for a month can never be counted as more than their actual earnings from work that month, as set by Commissioner regulations under section 423(d)(4)(A) of this title.