Over the past five years, the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) has reached an all-time low, averaging just 1.5 percent. Seniors, however, have reported that their living expenses are higher than ever. In fact, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) has found that seniors have lost almost one-third of their purchasing power since 2000, and their expenses have increased more than twice as fast as the annual COLA. Today, it is more clear than ever that the Social Security COLA is failing to help seniors keep up. .A new audit performed this year by the SSA's Office of Inspector General found that the same problem persists. The Inspector General identified 26,033 spouses – who were eligible for about 5.3 million in higher retirement benefits (about ,502 a piece on average). .Last week, in a last ditch attempt to try and come up with new legislation, Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Meadows met with the leaders of the House and Senate see if they could reach a compromise. They could not. One of the big reasons was the overall cost of the legislation and in the amount of money that would be given to those who are unemployed because of the pandemic. .Second, six new cosponsors signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 521, H.R. 141), bringing the cosponsor total up to thirty in the Senate and 163 in the House of Representatives. The new cosponsors are: Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Representative Colin Allred (TX-32), Representative Elaine Luria (VA-2), Representative Susan Davis (CA-53), and Representative Sean Casten (IL-6). .Support Grows for Social Security Fairness Act .Also this week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed optimism that he will gain support for the bill to lower prescription drug prices that he and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have written. Grassley's remarks came in the light of President Trump's State of the Union speech where he thanked Grassley for his work on the drug price issue and urged Congress to get a bill passed and sent to him. .This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its preliminary 2015 payment rate changes for the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. In addition, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw two key bills gain support. .I recently introduced H.R. 4521, SNAP Simplification for the Elderly Act, as one of the focal points for my "Let's Feed America Campaign." The bill would eliminate burdensome red tape and make it easier for the low-income elderly and disabled individuals to receive SNAP, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and the Medicare Savings Program (MSP) benefits. .In Washington, my priority is helping improve the lives of the American people, and that includes addressing our nation's retirement system to ensure it serves our seniors more effectively. One way Congress did this was by passing the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 201This bill, which passed with my support, will streamline and update our nation's retirement system in several ways, including removing the age limitation on IRA contributions, increasing access to retirement plans by allowing small businesses to join together to offer plans, and allowing penalty-free distributions from a retirement account for the birth or adoption of a child. This legislation isn't perfect, but it is a step forward, and I am glad the SECURE Act was passed into law at the end of 201While approximately half of American households still don't have an option for work-based retirement plans, as a nation we must continue to work to advance access to retirement savings vehicles and decrease barriers to entry for small employers who want to offer savings plans to their employees.