Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act of 2021

Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act of 2021

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code, the Social Security Act (SSAct), and other federal laws to replace (1) references to wife or husband with references to spouse, and (2) references to husband and wife or husband or wife with references to married couple or married person.

For purposes of federal laws or regulations, marriage is defined as a legal union between two people as spouses. The bill eliminates a definition of spouse that refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Requirements concerning compensation to a surviving wife after the disability or death of a person employed at a military, air, or naval base outside the United States are revised to make surviving spouses eligible for such compensation.

The bill makes similar revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

The bill revises title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the SSAct to consolidate separate provisions for a wife's insurance benefits and a husband's insurance benefits into a single standard for a spouse's insurance benefits.

Criminal penalties that currently apply to persons who threaten to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon a former President's wife or widow are revised to apply to threats made to a former President's spouse or surviving spouse.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov