AARP Urges No Benefit Cuts, Demands Transparency on Social Security Legislation

WASHINGTON — AARP Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond testified in Congress before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on "Exploring Process Approaches for Addressing Social Security Solvency" to lay out AARP's message: to protect and strengthen Social Security, without cuts, and without shortcuts. 

The overwhelming majority of Americans, across party lines, oppose cuts to Social Security. Proposals to short-circuit the normal legislative process limit the scrutiny that protects what Americans have earned — and a process that restricts debate and amendments can become a glide path to cuts that could not withstand consideration in full public view. If Congress aligns itself with what the American people are asking for — protecting and strengthening Social Security without cuts — it will find that no shortcuts are necessary.

Here in the Senate, it is this Committee that is charged with the substantial responsibility of protecting Social Security. You were elected by your constituents and chosen by your peers to make these weighty decisions. You have amassed deep expertise, and you are supported by dedicated staff steeped in Social Security policy. If you choose to strengthen Social Security without cuts, you will have the support of the vast majority of Americans — and you will have AARP as a committed partner.

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Social Security can be strengthened for generations to come, and Congress is fully capable of doing it. Social Security is not “going broke,” as some have claimed. According to the 2026 Trustees Report, absent Congressional action the combined trust funds are projected to be depleted in 2034, at which point only 83 percent of scheduled benefits would be payable — and the retirement fund alone faces depletion in late 2032, which would mean an automatic cut of roughly 22 percent. That is a serious challenge — but it is a solvable one, and Congress solves problems of this scale all the time. Every year, Congress passes appropriations exceeding $1.7 trillion — more than four times the size of Social Security’s projected annual shortfall in 2034 — and enacts the National Defense Authorization Act. When the task is important and urgent, Congress acts. Acting sooner makes the task easier, and it would shore up Americans’ confidence in Social Security’s future and, more broadly, in Congress itself.

That is why our message today is one of confidence in this institution: Congress should do this work itself. AARP opposes the pending proposals to hand Social Security’s future to a commission or outside entity, or to force changes through fast-track procedures that restrict debate and amendments.

In LeaMond's full testimony, she discusses the failures of prior commissions and why Congress must prioritize strengthening Social Security head-on, rather than outsourcing this difficult work.