News

  • About Us Board And Staff

    If adopted, H.R. 1170 would strengthen and expand the Social Security program by providing beneficiaries with a monthly benefit boost, basing cost-of-living adjustments on the CPI-E, and setting the Special Minimum Benefit at 125 percent of the poverty line. It would also apply the payroll tax to all income – including investment income – over 0,000. .Here's how it works: If Medicare spending exceeds certain growth rates, the 15-member board must make recommendations to Congress to rein in spending. If Congress fails to respond by passing cost-cutting measures of their own, the board's recommendations would be automatically implemented. .The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a federal agency known as BARDA, is giving Moderna up to 3 million for late-stage development of its vaccine. … Continued

  • Hearing For Pricing Of Anti Inflammatory Drug Humira And Cancer Drug Imbruvica

    The sharp drop in benefits was unexpectedly steep and unduly harsh for those born from 1917 through 192According to economist Haldi, the decline in average benefit payments "was a highly unusual phenomenon, because benefits normally would be expected to increase slightly from one year to the next for people similarly situated. (7)" .Despite tightening the law, Congress did not fix a policy loophole that would be inadvertently triggered with the passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation. When determining entitlement for insured status (10 years), and in calculating the initial retirement benefit amount, the Social Security Administration uses all reported earnings from covered employment in the United States, even if the earnings were from illegal or "unauthorized" work. .You can receive Social Security benefits and unemployment benefits at the same time. But depending on the state where you live, the unemployment benefit amount might be reduced by receipt of a pension or other retirement income like Social Security. … Continued

Social Security recipients, on the other hand, wouldn't have received anything during that period because the price inflation, as measured by the government's Consumer Price Index for Workers (CPI-W), fell and was not high enough for a COLA to be payable at all until January of this year. The projected Congressional COLA for 2013 is 1.1% and that would equal an extra ,900 if it takes effect, resulting in an annual salary of 5,900. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently projected that seniors would receive a 1.3% COLA in 201If the CBO is correct, the COLA would only raise average annual Social Security benefits about 9, from ,200 in 2012 to ,389 in 201There's a widespread misconception that Members of Congress don't pay into Social Security. That's not true. They do — but not on all of their salary. .To learn more about your Medicare benefits download a copy of the "2011 Medicare & You" handbook by visiting www.medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE ( 7). .This week, five new cosponsors signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 896 and H.R. 1795), bringing the total up to thirteen in the Senate and ninety-two in the House. The new cosponsors are Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR) and Reps. Charles Boustany, Jr. (LA-3), Thomas Massie (KY-4), Bill Shuster (PA-9), and Barbara Lee (CA-13). If signed into law, H.R. 1795 would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. The provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset – prevent dedicated public servants from receiving the retirement security they have earned. .The annual COLA increased Social Security benefits in January of 2021 by just 1.3 percent. While the lack of inflation in 2020 did somewhat improve the buying power of Social Security benefits by 2 percentage points by the month of January 2021 — from a loss in buying power of 30 percent to a loss of 28 percent — that improvement was completely wiped out by soaring inflation in February and March of this year. .Economists are saying that cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) overpay seniors and that recipients don't need so much money to maintain their standard of living. Cuts to annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are a key provision of the deficit reduction plans on Capitol Hill, and TSCL is fighting the plans that would cut the benefits of more than 60 million beneficiaries. .This week, Members of Congress remained in their home states and districts to prepare for the upcoming election, and The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw support grow for one key bill. .On Wednesday the Pentagon sent a "rightsizing plan" to Congress which, if fully agreed to by Congress, would result in approximately 200,000 military family members and retirees losing their ability to get health care at military hospitals and clinics. .The tax credit, a provision of the 2009 stimulus legislation, was advanced to taxpayers in 2009 and 2010 through higher pay and pension checks by a decrease in federal income tax withholdings. Most eligible people qualified for a credit of up to 0 (individual) or 0 (joint). But millions of taxpayers through no fault of their own were advanced more of the Making Work Pay Tax Credit than they were entitled to. . Send an email to your Members of Congress. This is an election year, and the last thing they want to hear is that health insurers are blaming COVID-19 for the steep price increases. You can get email addresses on TSCL's website here: http://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/8854/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=10560. Or, you can look up your Representative and send emails at: www.house.gov and Senators at: www.senate.gov.