Social Security 2100 Bill Hearing Set for Dec. 7
The bill sets the CPI-E as the basis for COLAs and expands the payroll tax.
House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson, D-Conn., plans to hold a hearing on Dec. 7 on his new legislation, Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust.
The hearing, to be held by the Social Security Subcommittee, dubbed “The Fierce Urgency of Now — Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust,” slipped a bit in timing from Larson’s previous plan to convene a hearing on the bill in November followed by a markup.
The bill, introduced on Oct. 26, adopts the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly as the basis of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), applies the payroll tax to wages above $400,000, combines the Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance trust funds, includes a 2% benefit bump.
The bill would extend the depletion date (when a 20% cut to benefits would occur) to 2038.
Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst with The Senior Citizens League, told ThinkAdvisor previously that given the current legislative calendar, passage of the bill this year isn’t likely.
“Social Security legislation requires consideration under special rules,” Johnson said. “Thus, I suspect that the provisions of this bill would need to be considered separately” from the spending bill being debated in Congress.
Larson’s bill “will certainly open debate over how to strengthen Social Security benefits and the financing of the program in 2022,” Johnson added, “and we intend to continue to work with members of Congress to find the best solutions to improve program solvency and benefits for all beneficiaries.”
The Social Security 2100 bill “not only provides measures that would boost benefits, and provide better protection from inflation, but it would adjust the income thresholds that subject Social Security benefits to taxation, among a number of long-overdue changes,” Johnson said.