News & Information

CCH® UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE — 8/5/13

Ways and Means Committee seeks public input regarding Social Security and Medicare proposals

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich) recently announced that the Committee is accepting public comments on bipartisan proposals to reform Medicare and Social Security. The announcement follows several hearings held by the Ways and Means Subcommittees on Health and Social Security as part of the Committee’s entitlement reform hearing series. As part of the effort to engage Americans in the discussion, the Committee will provide draft legislative text on bipartisan plans that have been proposed over the last several years. Feedback may be submitted via email to entitlementreform@mail.house.gov. Information about the first proposal, “Using the Chained Consumer Price Index to Determine Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments and Benefit Increases for Long-Time Social Security Beneficiaries,” is available at www.waysandmeans.house.gov/entitlementreform. Comments on this proposal are due by August 10, 2013.

Commenting on the announcement, Camp stated, “Regardless of political persuasion, there is growing understanding and acceptance that Medicare and Social Security are in financial peril, and our hearings have only underscored that reality. Given the bipartisan support for various reforms to these programs, there is no reason we cannot roll up our sleeves and get this done. But, before we make any decisions, we want to make sure people are sharing their thoughts and ideas about the next steps Congress and the White House will need to take to identify and implement real solutions.”

Without action to address the fiscal and structural challenges facing the nation’s entitlement programs, Medicare will be bankrupt by 2026 and seniors will see a 23 percent cut to their Social Security benefits in 2033.

In April, the Ways and Means Committee announced a bipartisan hearing series on entitlement reform. As part of that series, the Committee reviewed a variety of proposals to protect and preserve Medicare and Social Security that have been identified by President Obama—either in his budget or in other recommendations to Congress. The Committee is also reviewing bipartisan ideas for entitlement reform from the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (known as the “Simpson-Bowles Commission”) and the Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force (known as the “Domenici-Rivlin Task Force”)(Ways and Means Press Release, July 11, 2013).