“Congress has a duty to protect the retirement benefits of our senior citizens.”

With the prospect of Social Security reform looming in the not so distant future, it is important that Members of Congress assure your benefits are not cut as part of any “reform.” Seniors have worked too hard for a secure retirement to see it jeopardized by a short-sighted effort to ensure future Social Security solvency.

Under current law, Americans have no property right to their Social Security benefits. Most Americans have paid Social Security taxes over their working lives and are planning for retirement with the expectation that they will receive these Social Security benefits. However, legally, Congress could eliminate or reduce these benefits in the name of Social Security reform. This already happened to Notch Babies.

Due to changes made to Social Security in 1977, Notch Babies born from 1917 through 1926 receive lower benefits than other retirees with similar work and earnings records. These folks deserve special attention in Congress and we must devise a way to compensate them for what they should have received from Social Security.

TSCL has long been working on the issues of Notch reform and fairness, including Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) fairness for senior citizens. In my district there are 2,472 constituents who are members of TREA Senior Citizens League (TSCL), many of whom are Notch babies. It was a pleasure to meet with the TREA Senior Citizens League Chairman, George Smith, and Board of Trustees on October 24, 2002. That meeting enabled me to get a better understanding of TSCL’s work as the third largest seniors’ organization. TSCL works for the defense of earned benefits for people retired from the civilian or military work force.

In the last session of Congress, I introduced “The Social Security Guarantee Act,” H.R. 832. The bill would eliminate concerns over benefit reductions by seeking to give seniors a legally binding “property right” to their retirement benefits. Specifically, it would require the Secretary of the Treasury to issue to each recipient of Social Security retirement benefits a certificate that includes a written guarantee of a fixed monthly benefit, plus a guaranteed annual cost-of-living increase.

During the next session of the 108th Congress, I look forward to working with Congressmen Ralph Hall (D-TX), Virgil Goode (I-VA), William Jenkins (R-TN) and others, to introduce Notch Reform legislation which will have better prospects of success. I also look forward to helping TSCL introduce the new report on the Notch by Dr. Haldi to all Members of Congress. I encourage members of TSCL to get in touch with your Members of the new Congress to help further the interests of seniors.

To read more about The Social Security Guarantee Act, read “Congressional Corner: Representative Walter Jones Introduces Social Security Guarantee Act” at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/100952.asp.

March 2003