AARP Hearing Center
AARP’s Top Advocate Takes Social Security Campaign to Capitol Hill
Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond to testify today at Senate hearing on solvency debate
Nancy LeaMond testifies during a Senate special committee on aging in 2025.
Greg Kahn
Key takeaways
- AARP’s top advocate will urge senators to address Social Security’s finances through an open, deliberative process — not through a special commission or short-circuited debate.
- Three pending bills would charge an outside panel or commission with the job of drafting legislation to address Social Security’s long-term financial health.
- AARP supports strengthening Social Security without benefit cuts, a position backed by 81 percent of older Americans.
AARP’s call on Congress to shore up Social Security’s finances without enacting any cuts to benefits — and to do so in an open, transparent debate — will get a Capitol Hill airing Aug. 5 as our top advocate addresses a key Senate committee.
AARP Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond’s scheduled testimony at a Senate Finance Committee hearing comes as lawmakers weigh several bills that would give unelected boards or commissions the job of drafting legislation to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security’s trust funds and allow Congress to consider the proposals under rules that short-circuit the normal legislative process.
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In a written statement submitted ahead of the morning hearing, LeaMond calls on Congress to “do this work itself — openly, transparently and deliberatively, through regular order — rather than outsourcing it to commissions or forcing it through fast-track procedures that restrict debate and amendments.”
A truncated process “can become a glide path to [benefit] cuts that could not withstand consideration in full public view,” she adds.
What is being proposed?
At issue are three bills now pending in Congress:
- The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone (PROMISE) Act would empower an existing body, the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB), to write legislation to ensure the trust funds — currently projected to exhaust their surplus by 2034 — remain solvent for at least 50 years. That proposal would then be considered by Congress under expedited rules that curb amendments and cap debate.
- The Fiscal Commission Act would establish a new panel to propose measures aimed at reducing the national debt and annual deficits and shoring up the trust funds that support Social Security, Medicare and the national highway system. Those proposals would then be fast-tracked through Congress.
- The Bipartisan Social Security Commission Act would charge a 13-member commission with providing recommendations and legislation to Congress on how to bolster Social Security’s finances. Under that bill, lawmakers would then introduce the commission’s bill, and it would be subject to an up-or-down vote with no amendments allowed by individual lawmakers.
Proponents of these bills say they would jump-start a bipartisan process to address Social Security’s looming shortfall and help forge long-term solutions. But AARP opposes measures that would inhibit public scrutiny of proposed changes, shield lawmakers from accountability and make it easier to rush Social Security benefit cuts through Congress.
“You were elected by your constituents and chosen by your peers to make these weighty decisions,” LeaMond says in her written testimony. “You have amassed deep expertise, and you are supported by dedicated staff steeped in Social Security policy.”
Polls show support for AARP’s ‘no-cuts’ position
Social Security payments, which currently go to more than 71 million Americans, are primarily funded by payroll taxes levied on most U.S. workers and their employers. Additional revenue comes from income taxes on payments and interest on bonds that the trust funds hold in federally backed guaranteed securities.
In recent years, outgoing payments have exceeded payroll tax revenues, requiring Social Security to draw down trust fund reserves to meet its benefit obligations. Without congressional action, those reserves will be depleted in 2034, and the revenue flowing into Social Security will cover only about 83 percent of scheduled payments, according to the 2026 annual report from Social Security’s Board of Trustees.
Lawmakers can address the problem by increasing revenue, reducing outlays for benefit payments or a combination of both.
AARP is calling on Congress to strenghten the program without any cuts to payments, a position supported by 81 percent of older adults, according to a May 2026 AARP poll. LeaMond’s statement notes that Social Security is becoming more central to Americans’ retirement security than ever before as traditional pensions decline and many workers struggle to amass savings.
“Social Security is the only lifetime, inflation-protected, guaranteed source of retirement income that most Americans will ever have,” she says. “It provides more than half of household income for 43 percent of older American households — and for nearly 12 million people age 65 and older, it is essentially all they have, providing 90 percent or more of their income.”
Because it has such broad support, LeaMond tells lawmakers, the path forward should be clear: “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.”
LeaMond is one of four policy experts invited to speak at the hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and can be viewed here.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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