Legislation passed in 1983 required all Members of Congress to pay into Social Security. That said, like all high-income workers, they only pay Social Security up to the maximum taxable wage, which in 2012 is 0,100. Thus Members of Congress pay no Social Security taxes on the additional ,900 they receive as salary. Since Members of Congress are high-income earners, they are also in line for the maximum tax break due to the payroll tax cut extension. The payroll tax rate has temporarily been cut by 2%, meaning Members of Congress will save ,002 in 2012. .TSCL was pleased to see support grow for H.R. 1902, H.R. 2575, and H.R. 4841 this week, and we will continue to advocate for them tirelessly in the months ahead. For more information, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. For updates on the progress of these and other bills, follow The Senior Citizens League on Twitter. .This week, the Senate Finance Committee met with a representative from the Obama administration to discuss alternatives to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. In addition, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw five key bills gain new cosponsors. .What would locality pay adjustments mean for your Social Security benefits? It's unclear, and likely difficult to estimate. Studies would have to be performed to compare locality - based pay adjustments to what future annual COLAs might be. Locality pay adjustments would be higher in areas where private sector pay scales are higher than those of federal workers, and lower in areas where pay scales are lower. The percentage of the annual locality pay increase would vary depending on where you live. Some retirees would receive a lower percentage of increase, or even no increase, while others a higher percentage. ."The group of Democrats blocked one committee from advancing their party's drug-pricing legislation, with two members arguing it was too far-reaching and could stymie innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Some of those Democrats also want to rein in a proposal to expand Medicare to include dental coverage, a high priority for progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." .The Senior Citizens League can be reached via e-mail at comments@ or you can reach us by telephone at 800-333-TSCL (8725). Our mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League consists of vocally active senior citizens concerned about the protection of their Social Security, Medicare, and veteran or military retiree benefits. .The AWI, however, is susceptible to causing permanent benefit reductions when it turns negative, which can happen in years of deep economic recession and extraordinarily high unemployment, as was the case in 2020. Last year, concerns were high that the reductions could be as high as 9.1%, according to an estimate by Social Security's Chief Actuary Stephen Goss. But since then the economy and wages have steadily recovered and the dip in the AWI, if any, is not expected to be so deep. .Senate Adopts Budget Resolution .As debate intensifies over the cost of medicines, a new analysis found that prescription drug prices were on average 2.5 times more expensive in the U.S. than in 32 other countries. And that gap widened to 3.4 times costlier when looking specifically at brand-name medications.