Legislation to Shore Up Social Security Resurfaces

A bipartisan, bicameral group of U.S. legislators has introduced legislation focused on shoring up Social Security.

The group has introduced legislation (the Time to Rescue United States’ Trusts (TRUST) Act) that would create a process “to rescue the endangered federal trust funds and rein in the national debt,” according to a press release.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)—who introduced the legislation in the last Congress—was joined as co-sponsors by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Todd Young (R-IN), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Angus King (I-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Warner (D-VA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). In the U. S. House of Representatives, Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Ed Case (D-HI), Scott Peters (D-CA), Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA) introduced companion legislation “to address the key structural issues behind the debt and allow Congress to put our major federal programs on a stronger footing.”

The process wouldn’t just be focused on Social Security—which has been projected to suffer funding issues in the not-too-distant future. Rather, according to a one-pager describing the bill, it would include the Highway Trust Fund, Medicare Part A, and both Social Security trust funds (pensions and disability). In September 2020, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that four of the major trust funds will exhaust their reserves within the next 11 years.

The bill would provide a vehicle to: 

• Identify the government’s major endangered trust funds.
• For each endangered trust fund, the bill would create a “Rescue Committee.”
• Congressional leaders would appoint 12 members to serve on each “Rescue Committee”—one per trust fund—with the mandate to draft legislation that extends long-term solvency and otherwise improves each trust fund program.
• Committees would have a window of 180 days, although recommendations may be put forward at any point prior to that deadline if there is sufficient bipartisan support.
• If a Rescue Committee reports a qualifying bill, it would receive expedited consideration in both chambers.
• While 60 votes would be required to invoke cloture prior to final passage in the Senate, only a simple majority would be needed for the motion to proceed, which would be privileged.

“There is broad recognition that we need to address the looming insolvency of our federal trust funds,” Romney said. “Getting our country through the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to borrow trillions of dollars, which has in turn threatened essential programs like Medicare and Social Security. Congress must respond in a way which will address this long-term problem, which is coming down the pike much sooner than was expected. Our TRUST Act is a bipartisan solution which will shore up our federal trust funds and put us on a path toward a stronger fiscal future.”

Will the bill to create a process become a framework for a much-needed solution? Time will tell.