Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | Edition 196 | Item #3

We don’t, or at least that is the on-going concern with a Social Security system that will, absent meaningful action, have to make significant benefit cuts in 2032. The good news is that there is increasing action, or at least increasing talk about action, with the most bipartisan energy focused right now in both the House and the Senate on creating a blue-ribbon commission to develop comprehensive legislation. The Senate bill introduced in July by a group including Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tim Kaine (D-VA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Angus King (I-ME) would create a bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board to develop legislation capable of keeping the program solvent for at least 50 years, followed by expedited congressional consideration. A similar House bill would create a temporary 13-member commission charged with producing a bipartisan package that restores solvency for at least 75 years. The recommendations would receive expedited consideration and notably, Congress would not be able to amend the commission's package before voting on it.

Similar bodies, such as the Greenspan Commission in 1983, have been used by Congress to reform Social Security (and to avoid the tricky politics of the situation), but the current proposals have not met with universal acclaim. Notably, AARP has gone on record criticizing the Commission approach, arguing that the process shortcuts regular order, unnecessarily limits debate and reduces the opportunity for amendments, thereby undermining the opportunity for innovative ideas. Check out a letter from AARP’s Nancy LeaMond to Senator Bill Cassidy here.