SUSPECTED Nazi war criminals would be blocked from receiving US government pension benefits under a bill unanimously approved by the House of Representatives.
THE measure would shut a loophole that allowed suspected Nazis to be paid millions of dollars in benefits.
Under the bill, benefits would be terminated for Nazi suspects who have lost their American citizenship, a step called denaturalisation.
US law currently mandates a higher threshold - a final order of deportation - before the benefits, known as Social Security, be stopped.
The legislation was introduced after an investigation revealed that Social Security benefits have been paid to dozens of former Nazis after they were forced out of the United States.
The investigation found that the Justice Department used a legal loophole to persuade Nazi suspects to leave the US in exchange for Social Security benefits.
If they agreed to go voluntarily, or simply fled the country before being deported, they could keep their benefits.
The Justice Department denied using Social Security payments as a way to expel former Nazis.
Republican Representative Leonard Lance said the House action would "correct an injustice of two generations and right a terrible wrong in the name of the lives that were lost as a result of the Holocaust".
The unanimous vote showed that "our resolve for justice is unyielding and our commitment to pursue what is right continues even 70 years after World War II," said Lance, a co-sponsor of the bill and co-chair of the Republican Israel Caucus.
"We cannot allow Social Security benefits to continue flowing to those guilty of the worst atrocities in modern history," added Democrat Representative Carolyn Maloney.
Maloney previously called on the Obama administration to investigate the payments, which she described as a "gross misuse of taxpayer dollars."
The House vote came as two Republican senators demanded that the Obama administration provide Congress with records explaining how suspected Nazis received the payments and the role the Justice Department played in the program.
Former Auschwitz guard Jakob Denzinger, who fled the United States in 1989 and lives in Croatia, collects a Social Security payment of about $US1,500 ($A1,623) a month.
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