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Noncitizen Benefit Clarification and Other Technical Amendments Act of1998

Public Law 105-306 · H.R. 4558 · 105th Congress · began in the House

Signed by Bill Clinton (D) on Oct 28, 1998 · Social Welfare

Sponsor: Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL-22)

Cosponsors (1): Rep. Sander Levin

Passage votes

  • HouseVoice vote
  • SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes

The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.

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Summary

The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.

Noncitizen Benefit Clarification and Other Technical Amendments Act of 1998 - Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRAWORA) to provide that the new restrictions it imposes on alien eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) under title XVI of the Social Security Act (SSA) (and thus Medicaid under SSA title XIX) shall not apply to a nonqualified alien who was receiving such benefits on August 22, 1996 (the date of enactment of PRAWORA).

(Sec. 3) Amends the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (NAFTA) to permanently extend the authorization of the Self-Employment Assistance programs.

(Sec. 4) Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reduce, by 20 percent, the penalty for State failure to meet the deadline for compliance with child support data processing and information retrieval requirements, for each performance measure under the child support enforcement incentive payment system for which the State does achieve maximum performance.

Amends the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998 to amend the effective date for State enactment of certain medical child support requirements (in order to allow State legislatures that meet biennially to pass such laws after October 1, 2001).

(Sec. 5) Amends PRAWORA to allow nonresident alien professionals to renew their U.S. professional licenses.

(Sec. 6) Amends SSA title IV part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) with regard to welfare-to-work grants to eliminate the one year obligation requirement and allow a State to retain certain funds reserved for special projects (or for States small enough to have only one Service Delivery Area), without passing them through to a sub-State entity, even if all the money has not been obligated each fiscal year.

(Sec. 7) Amends SSA title XVI to exclude from SSI eligibility and Medicaid benefit calculations up to $2,000 in cash awards made by tax-exempt organizations to children with life-threatening conditions.

(Sec. 8) Amends part A (General Provisions) of SSA title XI to authorize the Social Security Administration to recover SSI overpayments by offsetting up to ten percent per month of any Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance benefits under SSA title II.

Committees

The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.

Data notes

A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.

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Timeline

From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 15 actions.

  1. Oct 28, 1998Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 105-306.
  2. Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
  3. Oct 20, 1998PresidentPresident · Presented to President.
  4. Oct 8, 1998FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
  5. Sep 23, 1998FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  6. FloorFloor · On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.
  7. FloorFloor · Mr. Camp moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
  8. Sep 22, 1998CommitteeCommittee · Reported by House Ways and Means Committee
  9. Sep 18, 1998CommitteeCommittee · Markup by House Ways and Means Committee
  10. Sep 15, 1998CommitteeCommittee · Reported by Work and Welfare Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee
  11. CommitteeCommittee · Markup by Work and Welfare Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee
  12. CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Work and Welfare Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee
  13. Sep 14, 1998CommitteeCommittee · Referred to House Energy and Commerce Committee
  14. CommitteeCommittee · Referred to House Ways and Means Committee
  15. IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in the House
Data notes

Shows the introduction, each committee and subcommittee step the source dates (referral, hearings, markup, report, discharge), and the floor, conference, presidential and became-law steps. Calendar placements, messages between the chambers, amendments and committee report numbers are not shown for laws before the 108th Congress. Two entries the source lists twice are shown once.

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Official record

The bill’s full text and every action, including introduction and committee steps, are on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.