CRS Issue Statement on Disability Benefits

Scott Szymendera, Coordinator
Analyst in Disability Policy

Federal disability benefit programs are primarily intended to provide a measure of income security to persons with disabilities by replacing some of the income lost due to their inability to work or due to the increased medical, housing, transportation, and other costs often associated with disability. The modern federal commitment to provide such benefits to persons with disabilities has its beginnings in the 20th century. At the beginning of the century, during the nation's industrial revolution, the federal government began one of the first workers' compensation programs for railroad workers, who, because of the interstate nature of their work, could not be served by any one state program, and later extended coverage to federal employees and interstate longshore and harbor workers. With the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, the federal government committed to provide income replacement to persons who stopped working because of their age and 20 years later extended this commitment to persons unable to work because of disability. The first benefits for disabled veterans were paid before the United States was a nation, and this commitment was formalized into a unified federal veterans benefit system in 1930. In addition to these precedents, modern disability programs also find their homes in the federal government because of our nation's constitutional obligation to provide for the "general welfare" and civil rights of all Americans.


Date of Report: January 15, 2010
Number of Pages: 7
Order Number: IS40283
Price: $7.95

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