This week, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) announced its support for new legislation that would improve the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). .This week, lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill and resumed work on a stopgap funding measure for fiscal year 2015, which begins on October 1st. In addition, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) saw support grow for three key bills. .This week, the House Budget Committee met to discuss retirement security in America, and The Senior Citizens League saw three key Social Security bills gain support in Congress. .TSCL has filed three lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act requesting copies of the agreement and other information and has placed ads in The Washington Times in opposition to the proposed agreement. We will continue to closely monitor the totalization matter. .On Monday, Members of the House and Senate returned to Capitol Hill from the month-long August recess and quickly began working on a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government past September 30th. Originally, leaders in both chambers agreed to keep the CR as "clean" as possible in order to avoid a government shutdown like last year's and to allow lawmakers to quickly resume campaign work for the looming November 4th elections. .The hold harmless provision usually affects only a small number of beneficiaries in any given year, which has a relatively minimal impact on Part B financing. Since 2010, however, the hold harmless provision has been triggered on a nationwide basis an unprecedented four times. This occurred when inflation was so low that the COLA was zero in 2010, 2011 and 2016 and just 0.3 percent in 2017. .The government negotiates prescription drug prices for veterans and Medicaid beneficiaries, but it is barred from negotiating lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. As a result, seniors enrolled in Part D often pay much higher prices than other Americans for their prescription drugs. What are you doing to correct this unfair policy? .Tuesday's hearing made it clear that the Joint Committee has an enormous amount of work to do in a very short amount of time and in a very politically-charged environment. Adding to the pressure, Elmendorf told the Committee Members that if they wish to have their proposal scored by the CBO before voting on it, they'll need to submit it by early November, giving them less than two months to reach a compromise. Despite the tough circumstances, most Members seemed up to the challenge and will to, as one Committee Member put it, "go big, go long, and go smart." .So far, 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed, and Members of the House have begun taking a piecemeal approach that would send some of them back to work by providing funding for certain agencies. However, the Senate has rejected each bill. Leaders in that chamber believe a piecemeal approach will set a bad precedent and give the opposing political party "veto power over what is funded and what isn't," according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY).