Category Archives for Congress

Update: Legislation submitted to reestablish the House Permanent Select Committee on Aging

Published in RINewsToday on August 13, 2021

U.S. Representatives David N. Cicilline (RI-01), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), and Doris Matsui (CA-06) reintroduced legislation to reestablish the House Permanent Select Committee on Aging to examine the challenges and issues facing the growing aging population in America.

This legislation has been endorsed by the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO). The original House Permanent Select Committee on Aging, which was active between 1974 and 1992, conducted investigations, hearings and issues reports to inform Congress on issues related to aging.  

“America’s seniors have spent a lifetime working hard and moving our country forward and they deserve the best in their retirement,” Rep. Cicilline said. “The pandemic has disproportionately impacted seniors and now with growing concerns about inflation, seniors on fixed incomes will bear the burden of the rising cost of prescription drugs, food, housing, and other essentials. There has never been a more urgent time for Congress to reauthorize the House Permanent Select Committee on Aging than right now. Congress must study and address the issues that affect seniors to make sure they can live the rest of their lives with dignity and security.”  

“Every day, 10,000 Americans turn 65 years old. This isn’t a statistic to keep dismissing; it’s a call for action that I have been ringing the alarm on for years,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky. “The pandemic magnified gaps in U.S. policy that routinely forget about Older Americans and the need to nurture a culture that respects them. From the lack of a universal long-term care policy to barriers to vaccine access earlier in the pandemic, these are issues that need to be examined so that Congress can put forward strong solutions to support our aging population and the communities they live in. I am committed to strengthening policies that support our seniors and proud to be a co-lead on this resolution to make it happen.”  

“Older Americans today face many difficulties—including achieving retirement security and affording the rising costs in health care and prescription drugs—which have only been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “They have worked hard their entire lives to contribute to our economy, care for our families and enrich our communities. By creating a Select Committee on Aging in the House, we can continue to strengthen and support policies that are important to seniors throughout the country. I am proud to co-lead the resolution to create this committee, and I look forward to continuing to fight for the priorities of Older Americans that gives them the fundamental rights that they deserve.”  

In 1974, the House Permanent Select Committee on Aging was established the purpose of “advising Congress and the American people on how to meet the challenge of growing old in America.” Although the committee did not have legislative authority, it played a critical role in raising awareness about Alzheimer’s Disease and elder abuse. The committee helped pass nursing home reforms, which helped reduce elder abuse at senior care facilities. Reestablishing the select committee would allow Congress to study and address longstanding issues including Social Security, Medicare, prescription drugs, and long-term care as well as other issues that didn’t exist in the past, including online scams which target vulnerable and unsuspecting seniors.

On April 20th, Herb Weiss, a writer on aging issues for RINewsToday published a piece about the history of the Commission on Aging and the possibility that the move that happened this week would, in fact happen.

Republican Study Committee, Social Security and Medicare

Published in RINewsToday on July 3, 2023

Last month, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) unveiled its 167-page FY 2024 “Protecting America’s Economic Security” budget proposal which calls for balancing the federal budget in seven years, slashes $16.3 trillion in wasteful government spending over ten years, and cuts $5.1 trillion in taxes. During the 118th Congress (2023 to 2024), 175 House Republican lawmakers from 38 states are RSC members. With over 70 percent of the House Republicans belonging to the RSC, the release of the proposed budget is a dependable indicator of where the chamber’s caucus stands on key legislative priorities.

The RSC annually releases its own budget proposal for the next fiscal year during the time when both House and Senate Budget Committees prepare official budget resolutions. The fiscal blueprint provides the House Republican Caucus with an opportunity to detail its wish list of spending priorities and also provides its position on social issues.

RSC’s FY 2024 budget, released on June 14, 2023, is made up of 220 individual legislative proposals and initiatives received from its members. Reflecting GOP values, the proposed budget would eliminate most funding for new abortion policies, Critical Race Theory, and “gender politics” initiatives, while ensuring adequate funding for the military, continued construction of a Southern border wall; rolling back “climate change” programs, and eliminating increases in funding for the IRS. It would also make 2017 tax cuts permanent as its provisions are starting to expire soon, and ensuring the nation’s energy independence; providing tax benefits to promote R&D: restricting free meals for students, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with the possibility of work/volunteer requirements.  

Aging groups are concerned that the RSC budget also takes aim at Social Security and Medicare programs. During 2023, the annual Social Security trust fund report warned that the program will only be able to continue paying out full benefits through 2034. The Medicare trust fund also reported that it could run low on funds by 2028, two years later than reported last year. While the Democratic platform seeks to raise caps on some programs to address this, the RSC’s budget proposal floated additional policies to financially fix these programs.

The RSC budget proposes “modest changes” to benefits for those who are not near full retirement age. For future retirees, it calls for raising the full retirement age (taking into account for increases in life expectancy) from age 67 to age 69 for those who turn 63 in 2033. It would also reduce benefits for future beneficiaries who earned a “higher salary” before retirement. Also, only “modest adjustments” to the Social Security program as it operates would be made but it doesn’t clarify the changes.   

As to Medicare, the RSC budget calls for requiring disabled people to wait longer before they can receive Medicare benefits. It pushes for turning Medicare into a “premium support system,” where seniors would receive a subsidy to be used to purchase private health plans competing against traditional Medicare.

Point/Counter Point

With the release of RSC’s budget, House lawmakers, the White House, and aging groups quickly issued statements touting their own positions. 

RSC’s Chairman Kevin Hern (R-Ok) noted the GOP’s conservative values could be found on every page of the budget blueprint. “Our budget proves that fiscal responsibility is the only way to lower inflation, grow the economy, cut federal spending, empower taxpayers, and protect small businesses. Congress controls the purse strings, but we, the House, has failed to produce a budget year after year after year. Everyone has to balance their budget – governors, mayors, businesses, families – but not Congress. Nearly every problem facing our government can be traced back to our failure to both pass a budget and stick to it. The Republican Study Committee has a budget, and it balances in just seven years. Our budget is real, and it’s floor-ready. It’s time to get our country back on track,” he said.

“For too long, irresponsible spending habits in Washington have made the cost-of-living more expensive for hardworking American families, and they are fed up with business-as-usual. The RSC budget prioritizes smart, common-sense policy to empower the American worker, and it cuts back on wasteful spending to pay for what’s important – just like families have to do every day. We are committed to protecting our country’s economic security and restoring fiscal sanity to our Nation’s finances,” says RSC Budget and Spending Task Force Ben Cline (R-VA).

On the other hand, Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, gives the RSC the thumbs down: “This budget stands in stark contrast to the positive, hopeful vision put forward by President Biden and supported by House Democrats: a government that works for working families, an economy where the ultra-rich pay their fair share, and a country where everyone has the freedom to retire with dignity. I look forward to working with President Biden and Congressional Democrats to ensure House Republicans’ bleak vision for America does not become our reality.”

Social Security and Medicare

Social Security advocacy groups warn that the programs proposed by the RSC would slash the nation’s safety net programs, like Social Security and Medicare.

“This budget would destroy Social Security as we know it. It would raise the retirement age and slash middle class benefits. These changes would transform Social Security from an earned insurance benefit, which replaces wages lost in old age, disability, or death, into a subsistence-level welfare benefit,” warns Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works.

“The budget fearmongers about Social Security’s modest shortfall (still a decade away) rules out any options for raising revenue, such as requiring billionaires to contribute more. That leaves benefit cuts as the only “solution.” In other words, they want to cut benefits now to avoid cutting them later, which isn’t a solution at all. Indeed, the budget will increase the number of workers who will have no ability to retire while maintaining their standard of living,” says Altman.

“A particularly cruel provision would force disability beneficiaries to wait five long years (instead of the current two, which is already too long) before becoming eligible for Medicare benefits. Outrageously, this change would deprive some of the most medically vulnerable people in America of health care. This provision alone would inevitably lead to more medical bankruptcies and increased homelessness,” notes Altman. 

Correcting misinformation on Social Security and Medicare

The Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare is launching a new public education campaign — sponsored by AARP — to correct misinformation about Social Security and emphasize the program’s value to American workers, especially to communities of color.  The campaign, “Social Security: Here Today, Here Tomorrow,” is intended to debunk myths and give workers the facts about their vital earned benefits.  The campaign includes a series of public town halls across the U.S. between June and October, 2023,  featuring prominent Social Security experts and advocates, Social Security officials, and financial advisors.

Max Richtman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Protected Social Security and Medicare says, “There is a ‘doom and gloom’ narrative about Social Security today. ‘The program is going bankrupt.’ ‘It won’t be there for future generations.’ ‘Politicians are stealing from Social Security.’ None of that is true. We want the public to understand that Social Security is there for them today — and it will be there for them tomorrow. And not just in retirement, but in case of disability, the death of a family breadwinner, or the retirement of a spouse. That’s what this campaign is all about.” Richtman will moderate some of the upcoming town halls.

“Social Security is a financial lifeline to millions of American seniors, but it is especially crucial to the Black community.  Black Americans traditionally rely on Social Security for monthly income more than other groups do, due to wage and job discrimination, diminishing employer-provided pensions, and challenges in saving for retirement. “Like all Americans, the Black community pays into Social Security with every paycheck — and deserves to know that the government will keep its promise to provide baseline financial security when they encounter what President Franklin Roosevelt called ‘the hazards and vicissitudes’ of life,” says Richtman.

Here is a schedule of the town halls. Admission is free. Reservations are required.

Philadelphia, PA, July 26, 2023 at Center In The Park

Lansing, MI, August 28, 2023 at AARP Michigan Office (To be televised later on WLAJ-TV/ABC)

Milwaukee, WI, September, 2023 (date & location TBA)

Las Vegas, NV, October, 2023 (date & location TBA)

Visit www.socialsecurityheretoday.org for registration information. Those unable to attend the free town halls in person will be able to watch live video streams.

Here is the text for the RSC’s FY 2024 Budget, Protecting America’s Economic Security: https://hern.house.govPuploadedfiles/202306141135_fy24_rsc_budget_print_final_c.pdf

House GOP leadership is committed to holding a vote to approve the RSC budget this year.  With a razor thin majority in the House and with Democrats stringing opposing, the RSC budget is unlikely to pass the lower chamber. 

In an interview with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that aired Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023, on “Face the Nation,” McCarthy stated, “Medicare and Medicaid slashes are off the table.”  But with three fourths of the House GOP caucus endorsing the RSC budget, making cuts to Social Security and Medicare, older voters must make it clear to their House lawmaker, “Don’t touch Social Security and Medicare.”

Ratcheting up SSA’s customer service will take more funding 

Published in RINewsToday on May 1, 2023

Over two months ago, as required by law, Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security Administration (SSA) released the fiscal year 2023 operating plan to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The report, released on Feb. 10, 2023, details how SSA plans to use its $14.1 billion budget allocation for the year. 

Kijakazi wrote in the report’s transmittal letter: “In FY 2023, we will build the foundation for improved services by rebuilding our workforce after ending FY 2022 at our lowest staffing level in over 25 years.”

According to Kijakazi, at the end of Dec. 2022 the initial SSA claims-pending level soared to almost 975,000 cases.  This was more than 380,000 cases higher than at the end of FY 2019. “The average initial claims wait time through Dec. 2022 was 206 days compared to 120 days in FY 2019.  It will take a multi-year effort and sustained funding to restore our average initial disability claims wait times to pre-pandemic levels,” she says.

While Kijakazi anticipates processing 129,000 or 7% more initial disability claims in FY 2022 (52 weeks), she expects wait times for a disability decision at the initial and appeal levels to increase for a period of time because backlogs will continue to grow while the agency hires and trains new staff. 

Although the FY 2022 outlay represents $785 million of the agency’s budget of $13.34 billion, it was less than the $14.8 billion President Joe Biden requested for administration funding. In February 10th correspondence to the House and Senate Appropriation Committees, Kijakazi stated that while budget increases will cover fixed costs and support staffing in the upcoming fiscal year, “some performance will show improvement in FY 2023, while others will show temporary degradation.” 

Conversations regarding SSA’s customer service challenges

In February 28th correspondence to SSA’s Kijakazi, AARP’s Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer, recognized increased funding was necessary for SSA to address its customer service problems. AARP recognizes that federal funding has not kept pace with increases in operational cost and demands, but the agency “needs to do more to constrain operating costs and increase productivity,” Kijakazi says.

LeaMond called the “expected decline in service troubling, given multiple assurances from SSA that the funding level received would be sufficient to at least maintain the modest customer service improvements made last year.”

“Your operating plan asserts that the already unacceptable average of call wait time of 33 minutes will be longer this year, increasing to 35 minutes, and people trying to call the agency will get a busy signal 15 percent of the time, more than double the rate last year.  This is an unacceptable step backward,” wrote LeaMond.

LeaMond says that SSA’s operating plan doesn’t address several customer service areas, especially the challenges of beefing up staff to improve in-person services and reducing wait times and busy rates that the public should expect when calling their local office.  She called for more details and when beneficiaries can expect improvements to online services.

“Even more concerning is the fact that the operating plans note that disability-related service improvements are not expected to occur before 2024 fiscal year,” adds Leamond. While the plan provides details about disability claims, and appeal workloads, as well as prioritization of claimants who have been waiting the longest, she calls on SSA to “act more quickly to improve the disability process.”

“The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) has large fixed costs, such as rent on its network of 1200 field offices, and those fixed costs increase every year. SSA’s funding does not come from the general government budget, but rather from Social Security’s accumulated reserve of $2.8 trillion. Yet for over a decade, Congress has restricted SSA from spending the funds necessary for adequate service,” says Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works (SSW).

Adds Altman, “While Congress this year allowed SSA to spend more, the additional dollars did not even cover all the fixed costs. They certainly did not correct the many years of underfunding. Service will not significantly improve unless Congress allows SSA to spend more of  Social Security’s accumulated reserve  — at the bare minimum,  the $15.5 billion that President Biden has requested — but ideally significantly more.”

Biden budget seeks to fix SSA’s customer service issues

In a blog article penned on March 30, 2023, Kathleen Romig, Director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Washington, DC-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, says that SSA has an opportunity to ratchet up its consumer service impacted by decades of restricted funds by receiving increased funding. “With additional funding in for the coming year, the agency could invest in the staff and technology it needs to better serve the public,” she says.

“Since 2010, SSA’s customer service budget has fallen by 17 percent after inflation, with its staffing falling a commensurate 16 percent – marking the lowest level in 25 years. These cuts happened even as the number of Social Security beneficiaries grew by 12 million, or 22 percent. Being forced to serve millions more people with fewer staff and resources has caused tremendous strain at SSA, and beneficiaries are suffering the consequences,” says Romig.

On March 9th, Biden released a FY 2024 budget calling for increased appropriations to SSA. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the president’s budget provides an increase of $1.4 billion (a 10% increase) over the FY 2023 budget to cover salaries, benefits and rent increases. It would also improve customer service at field offices, state disability determination services, and teleservice centers.   

Each year, SSA processes more than 6 million retirement, survivors, and Medicare claims, and more than 2 million disability and SSI claims, says OMB, charged with producing the president’s budget. Biden’s budget increase boosts staffing levels from FY 2023, allowing the agency to process about a half a million more disability cases in FY 2024 that were completed in FY 2022, significantly reducing wait times for those decisions.

GOP debt limit bill drastically cuts SSA’s operating budget

Just last week, by a razor thin margin, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)’s Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811) passed by a partisan vote of 217-215. Four Republicans voted “no”. While this legislation to lift the nation’s debt limit allows the U.S. Treasury to pay the nation’s bills, it has no chance for passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate. However, it will force the president’s team to the negotiation table with Republican House and Senate leadership, hoping it will push compromise on future spending limits.

Failure to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and global economies, as well as for all Americans, who rely on the federal budget to provide public services. (from Social Security and Medicare to food safety inspection, air traffic control, school nutrition, and environmental. 

After the House vote, Alex Lawson, SSW’s Executive Director of Social Security, charged that 217 House Republicans just voted to cut Social Security. “Nearly every Republican in the U.S. House just voted to slash the already inadequate funding of the Social Security Administration (SSA). If this bill becomes law, it will force SSA to close field offices, reduce hours, and lay off thousands of workers. This will make it far harder for Americans to claim the benefits they’ve earned,” warned Lawson. “Cuts to SSA are cuts to Social Security, and we will hold every single one of these members accountable,” he says.

Max Richtman, President and CEO of the Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) agrees with SSW’s assessment. One day before the vote, he wrote House members to urge them to pass “clean’ debt limit legislation.

“If the spending cuts and other [GOP] legislative changes that are incorporated in this legislation were ever to become law, the negative impact would be felt by virtually every American family in every Congressional District in the country,” wrote Richtman.

According to Richtman, the GOP’s proposed debt limit legislation includes among its provisions a roll-back of ALL discretionary federal spending to Fiscal Year 2022 levels in FY 2024, with growth limited to one prevent annually for the next decade. “This is not a minor trimming of spending that has been portrayed by some, but a dramatic slashing that will have devastating impacts on the Americans who rely on the affected programs for their health and well-being,” says the nationally recognized Social Security advocate. 

Reluctance to cut Defense and Veteran Health funding would have at least a 23 percent reduction to all other programs for FY 2024, charges Richtman, this resulting in funding cuts to SSA’s customer service budget.

“Cutting funding by six percent would significantly affect SSA’s ability to serve the public and undermine the Agency’s core-mission – producing longer wait times for benefits and to reach SSA representatives, as well as reduced access to in-person programs, noted Richtman, stressing that face-to-face access with SSA’s employees is critical to those who are elderly and disabled.

SSA calculates that for every $100 million in additional funding cut the federal agency would be forced to lay off an additional 1,000 employees, this equivalent to closing 40 field offices, says Richtman.

Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents, says the U.S. Treasury.  Like in the past, this Congress must follow to raise the nation’s debt limit, and is expected to do so.

Ultimately, it is crucial for Biden and McCarthy’s negotiations to hammer out a “clean” debt limits bill that will not cut SSA’s operational funding further which could send the agency’s customer service efforts into a tailspin. It is time for Congress to fix SSA’s operational funding issues once and for all to improve customer service provided to 65 million beneficiaries. 

For a copy of SSA’s 2023 Operating Plan go to https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2023/2023OP.pdf.

For a summary of H.R. 2811, Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, go to 

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr2811/summary

For a copy of President Biden’s FY 2024 Budget, go to:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2023/03/09/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-for-fiscal-year-2024.