Bipartisan group of senators introduces legislation to avert looming
Social Security shortfall
[July 15, 2026]
By FATIMA HUSSEIN and KEVIN FREKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
[to top of second column]
|
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.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
