Congress rarely moves as one when federal money is on the table. But exceptions happen, and the latest arrived this week from Wyoming and New Hampshire — two states that share little on the political map yet agreed that something inside the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) system has carried the smell of injustice for decades.
Senators John Barrasso and Maggie Hassan introduced a bipartisan proposal to eliminate the five-month waiting period that currently stands between a terminally ill person and their first SSDI payment. Five months. For someone living with a diagnosis that allows no delays, that stretch can amount to a lifetime.
New SSDI Bill Ends Red Tape for Terminally Ill
The bill is called the Expedited Disability Insurance Payments for Terminally Ill Individuals Act, and it carries the additional support of Cynthia Lummis, Christopher Coons, Lisa Murkowski, and Jack Reed.
The message behind it is not a small one: at the hardest moment a person faces, the government should not become another obstacle. Barrasso said the goal is to cut through red tape during an already difficult time, while still protecting the integrity of the system.
Hassan added that the bill would reduce financial stress and SSDI paperwork for people facing end-of-life decisions. Few legislative proposals manage to summarize their own purpose so cleanly.
SSDI Backlog Hits 1.1 Million in the SSA
While that bill finds its footing in the Senate, the system from the inside is navigating one of its most complicated stretches in decades. The Social Security Administration cut 7,000 positions in recent months — a 12% reduction in its workforce — driven by directives from the Department of Government Efficiency operating under the second Trump administration.
The consequences arrived quickly. With 1.1 million disability claims sitting unresolved, wait times lengthened. Field offices closed or reduced hours. Phone lines took longer to answer.
SSDI System Now Harder for 16 Million Americans
A recent report produced with researchers at Binghamton University described the situation with precision: “The big takeaway is that an already difficult-to-navigate system is now harder to engage with, and that means that people in need, including the 16 million people served by these two programs, have a harder time getting desperately needed cash assistance that they’re entitled to through these programs.”
The work drew on interviews with 52 benefits specialists at 32 organizations that help SSDI and SSI claimants through the process every day. This was not an opinion survey. It was fieldwork.
2026 SSDI Benefits Unchanged: Average Monthly Payment Rises to $1,630
The 2026 numbers remain in place and have not shifted by executive order. SSDI pays an average of $1,630 per month following the 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment applied in January — a $44 increase over the previous year.
For those also enrolled in Medicare, however, the net gain shrinks to $26.10 because the Part B premium climbed $17.90 and gets deducted directly from the monthly check. The substantial gainful activity threshold sits at $1,690 per month for non-blind recipients and $2,830 for blind recipients. The trial work period threshold — the rule that lets beneficiaries test a return to employment without immediately losing coverage — stands at $1,210 per month.
What is at stake reaches beyond any single figure. 11 million Americans under 65 with disabilities depend on SSDI or SSI as their primary income. For them, congressional agendas and administrative decisions are not policy abstractions — they are the difference between making rent and not making it. The Barrasso-Hassan proposal lands inside that reality.
It does not fix everything. But it acknowledges that some people no longer have time to spare, and that forcing them to wait five months for a benefit they have earned is not efficiency. It is administrative cruelty wearing the name of a regulation.
