Bipartisan senators introduce legislation to avert looming Social Security shortfall
Lawmakers in the Senate have unveiled a bipartisan proposal to address Social Security's looming insolvency
WASHINGTON -- With Social Security's looming insolvency date roughly six years away, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a proposal Tuesday to grapple with one of the most consequential financial challenges facing the federal government.
The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone, or PROMISE Act, comes on the heels of the latest Social Security Board of Trustees’ annual report, which found that Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to face a funding shortfall in 2032, a year earlier than last year’s projections.
Even with it being clear for years that Social Security was running out of money, Congress has been loath to act. Making changes to the program — and potentially cutting benefits — has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.
“The longer Congress waits, the more difficult it will be to address the program’s financial shortfall,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “We were elected to solve problems — we owe it to our kids and grandkids to protect and strengthen this critical program.”
Durbin, who is retiring, is joining with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia; independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and outgoing Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina in backing the Social Security legislation, which calls for an “independent, bipartisan advisory committee” that would make recommendations to Congress.
Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Alan Armstrong, R-Okla., signed onto the bill right before its introduction.
The bill is designed to force Congress to confront Social Security’s long-term financing problem by guaranteeing that lawmakers vote on a solvency plan. It culminates in an up-or-down vote on a plan that restores Social Security solvency for at least half a century.
Committees, however, have been here before. That happened as recently as 2024, when House lawmakers undertook an effort with the backing of several in GOP leadership to form a federal debt commission that would include tackling the solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
The effort collapsed when Americans for Tax Reform — led by its president, Grover Norquist — aggressively lobbied against it.
Social Security's looming funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration and reduced trust fund revenue due to the costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, according to the Board of Trustees' report.
The looming challenge for the programs is a partial funding gap, not a collapse. Even after trust fund depletion, the system will continue issuing benefits, albeit at reduced amounts.
Traditionally, Republicans have been skeptical of endorsing tax increases, while Democrats have been critical of calls to raise the age of Social Security eligibility. In 2022, members of the House Republican Study Committee proposed raising the age at which someone could qualify for Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago, when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the program from 65 to 67, based on recommendations from a commission under the leadership of Alan Greenspan.
Still, there are ongoing bipartisan calls to find a way to provide long-term funding to Social Security.
Last month, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling for raising the cap on the Social Security payroll tax.
For 2026, the payroll tax cap, or maximum amount of earnings on which you must pay Social Security tax is $184,500.
Americans for Tax Reform organized a lengthy and aggressive rebuttal with comments from scores of conservatives in opposition.
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