Senators introduce Social Security fix
Nonprofit 'strongly' opposes the measure
By: Medor Lee
USA Today
..... Social Security is facing across-the-board benefit cuts in six years, and older Americans what solutions, not opaquely operating committees, the AARP said.
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A bipartisan group of senator has introduced legislation to fast-track any Social Security-saving bills that could shore up the dwindling trust fund that supplements payroll taxes and keep benefits 100% intact.
..... A bipartisan, seven-member Social Security Advisory Board would draft a bill to keep the program's trust funds solvent for at least the next half-century. The Portaging Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for everyone Act would then be introduced in the House and Senate in congressional leaders before being consider by committees, which could hold hearings and revise the legislation.
..... Some prominent think tank such as he Bipartisan Policy Center and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget support the move to jump-start talks to keep Social Security solvent.
..... The BPC endorsed the proposed legislation as a "serious bipartisan process to break the status quo of inaction." The CRFB said it hopped the proposal "jump-starts much-needed precess to secure Social Security."
..... The AARP "strongly" opposes the bill, however. The nonprofit, nonpartisan advocate for 125 million Americans ages 50 and up said Congress urgently needs to address Social Security's finances, but there's no reasonless for lawmakers to farm out that work to another body as it would in the PROMISE Act.
..... "We strongly object to fast-tracking Social security changes through Congress," AARP chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond wrote in a July 21 [2026] letter adversed to Senator Dick Durbin,, D-Illinois, and Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana. Durbin and Cassidy are among the lawmakers who introduced the PROMISE Act proposal.
..... The PROMISE Ace would crate an "intendedness, bipartisan" Social Security Advisory Board to develop and send a base bill to Congress that would ensure the Social Security trust funds have enough money for at least 50 years.
..... Majority leader of the Senate and the House, or, if not, any member of congress could introduce the base bill, which would then be referred to the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee for a chance to hold hearings and amend it.
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The committee would vote or report, on the base bill, if they don't, the bill would automatically be placed on the Senate and House calendars.
..... The majority elders few the Senate and House could move the bill forward, as could any other member of Congress. similarly, anyone in congress could offer amendments after the motion to proceed. Finally, the Senate and House would vote on the bill after 100 hours of consideration. final passage would rewire a three-fifths vote in the Senate and a majority in the House.
..... "Our bipartisan proposal way," Durbin said in a release. "We were elected to solve problems - and there's no greater problem than the solvency and future of Social Security."
..... Though Durbin touts transparency, the AARP said the bill offers the opposite. It said the PROMISE Act limits debate and amendments, and that could allow lawmakers to cut social Security payments.
..... "Strengthening Social Security should happen through regular oder, in full public view, with openness and transparency - rather than through a process that limits the type of amendments and sets arbitrary procedural deadlines to short-circuit the debate," LeaMond said.
..... The bill class for the advisory board's proposal to be introduced in Congress by September 17 [2026] or the first day after that when the House and Senate are in session, she said. Lawmakers could then hold hearings and amend the advisory board's plan but would not need to vote to advance the measure out of key congressional committees, as is typical for federal legislation.
..... Instead, if lawmakers don't vote by November 9, [2026] the bill would move straight to the House and Senate floors - during a post-election "lame-duck session" of Congress "when departing members are completely unaccountable to voters," Leamond said.
..... Among her other objections to the bill, she argues that it caps the time to consider send and debate the bill at 100 hours and includes language that limits the types of amendments allowed.
..... "If every other bill in Congress goes through regular order, why would something as important as Social security get a special process that cuts off debate, that limits the kind of amendments, that limits the kind of things y9ou can talk about?" said Bill Sweeney, AARP's senior vice president for government affairs. "To us, that just doesn't make sense."
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The AARP also said it opposes two other bills that would cerate commissions to address Social Security's longterm solvency:
* One House bill, spoused by Representatives Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, and Tom Suozi, D-New York, creates a 13-member commission tasked with providing recommendation and legislation to Congress on how to shore up Social Security's finances. That bill would allow a proposed plan to move forward on an expedited, up-or-down vote. Individual members of Congress would not be able to offer amendments, the AARP said.
* Another propionate would cerate a fiscal commission to reduce the national debt and annual deficits and sore up trust funds dedicated not just for Social Security but also for Medicare and the nation's highway. But "Social Security is a self-financed system that does not contribute a penny to the national debt, and Congress should not put it in the cross-hairs of unrelated budget debates," LeaMond said. "Instead, any changes to Social Security should focus on the financial and retirement security of the American people."
..... Social Security provides retirement benefits to 71 million Americans to give them some financial security.
..... "[It's] a premise: that after a lifetime of hard work, you will receive the money you have earned," LeaMond said. "Keeping that promise is one of Congress's most solemn responsibilities.
..... "If regular order is the gold standard for routine legislative matters, it certainly should be the standard for something as important as Social Security."