According to Mr. Brune, SSA is making several organizational and technology-driven improvements that will lead to an increase in fraud detection. The administration is currently expanding its successful Cooperative Disability Investigations (CDI) program, which prevents benefit payments from being made in cases where fraud is detected. The CDI program is operating in thirty-three states this year, and it is expected to expand to the remaining seventeen states by 202Mr. Brune said, "Chairman Johnson and this Subcommittee have long championed this CDI program, and we thank you for that support." .In addition, three new cosponsors signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures (PRIME) Act (S. 1123 and H.R. 2305) this week, bringing the total up to twenty-four in the Senate and thirty-four in the House. If signed into law, the comprehensive bill would take a number of steps to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the two programs – a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly. The new cosponsors are Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-1), and Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-14). .On Thursday, TSCL held its first ever town hall meeting with great success in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. TSCL would like to thank Congressional Candidate Mark Meadows for taking time out of his busy schedule to address concerned members and supporters. .Under the cuts, House members have seen 948 fewer salaried positions in their offices. The 2012 budget calls for an additional 6.4 percent reduction and more cuts to Congressional staffs and office supplies. .After leaving major decisions on Social Security and Medicare cuts to the New Year, Members of Congress are returning to pick up their debate over entitlements and taxes. With the looming insolvency of the Social Security disability program just two short years away, Congress will be forced to take action to re-set program funding at some point soon. When that happens, cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) cuts could be used to shore up the program. .Rep. Gene Green (TX-29) recently introduced a bill that would remove the limit for the amount of outside income that an individual could earn while receiving Social Security benefits. The Social Security Earnings Test Repeal Act of 2011 was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. .The legislative proposal also does not specify whether the locality pay adjustment would be applied in addition to the COLA or used instead of a COLA. If the intention is to add a second adjustment in addition to the COLA my guess is that many retirees would welcome the additional boost. Should the proposal be intended to replace the COLA that brings a higher level of uncertainty to the annual adjustments than we already experience. For people who live in areas where private sector pay is on an even level with federal pay or lower, those retirees may wind up with little or no locality pay adjustment, perhaps over the course of many years. .An alternate measure of inflation, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, indicates that the number of older adults who are living in poverty is larger than what the "official" poverty measure reports, according to a recent analysis from the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. The way in which the government measures poverty is important because eligibility for critical low–income programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, and rental subsidies is determined by income, and tied to the "official" U.S. poverty measure. A greater number of needy people would qualify for safety-net programs like Medicaid, if the government were to use the more accurate Supplemental Poverty Measure to determine eligibility. .With it looking increasingly likely that Social Security beneficiaries will receive the highest COLA in seven years —about 3.3% in 2019 — proponents of "chaining" the COLA are likely to try to argue that the COLA under current law overpays recipients. Proponents of using the chained consumer price index to calculate the COLA claim that the chained consumer price index (CPI) is more "accurate" in calculating the COLA because it takes into account how people substitute other items when prices change.