This week, a federal court rejected the Obama administration's immigration appeal, and The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw two key bills gain new cosponsors. .Use of a consumer price index (CPI) that does not reflect the costs experienced by retirees to calculate the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) suppresses the amount of lifetime Social Security income received. It reduces your Social Security benefit payments by thousands of dollars over the course of a retirement. .This week, lawmakers in the Senate held confirmation hearings to question Congressman Tom Price (GA-6) and Congressman Mick Mulvaney (SC-5), who have been nominated by President Donald Trump to fill important positions in the administration. .Can I expect a cost of living increase this next year? Something needs to happen! .PLEASE be careful – and remember, there is NO vaccine, cure, or proven treatment for the coronavirus at this time. Do not waste your money on some "medicine" that supposedly will treat or prevent you from getting sick. .Federal law requires that any reduction in payroll tax revenues going into the Social Security Trust Fund must be replaced dollar-for-dollar with general revenues from the U.S. Treasury. Consequently, a temporary extension of the payroll tax cut will have no effect on the Social Security Trust Fund. .In addition, one new cosponsor – Rep. David Valadao (CA-21) – signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 1795) this week, bringing the total up to ninety-five. If signed into law, the bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision – two provisions that unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. .There are new federal rules that require hospitals to post their pricing information online in order to give patients the information they need to make decisions about their health care. But it turns out that some large hospital systems have been using codes that prevent that information from appearing in online search results. .In the past five years the annual adjustment has averaged just 1.4 percent — less than half the 3 percent average of the prior two decades starting in 1990. Retirees and disabled Social Security recipients are reporting that the COLA is doing a poor job of what it's intended to do — protecting the buying power of their Social Security benefits. According to an annual survey performed by TSCL, Social Security benefits have lost 31 percent of their buying power since 2000.