Ahead of Reintroduction, IFPTE Endorses Social Security 2100 Act

This week, IFPTE sent a letter to all House lawmakers urging them to become original cosponsors of the Social Security 2100 Act. This bill, cosponsored by House Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson, is expected to be reintroduced later next month. The version introduced in 2019 in the 116th Congress had the support of 209 cosponsors.

As mentioned in the IFPTE’s letter, the Social Security 2100 Act “meets IFPTE's fundamental goals of expanding the Social Security benefit, further shoring up the trust fund, and funding it through a progressive pay-for.”

At a time when the “three-legged stool” approach to retirement—a defined-benefit pension, Social Security, and personal savings—is no longer a practical strategy for most workers to meet their retirement needs, this bill would put in place a Social Security cost of living increase that is directly linked to the inflation experienced by seniors, thereby strengthening, not weakening, the buying power of Social Security beneficiaries. It also guarantees that the floor for the minimum benefit is 25% above the poverty line and pays for the benefit increase with an extension of the payroll tax on earnings over $400,000 of income, while maintaining the payroll tax up to the current level of $128,400 of earnings, leaving the earnings between those two income levels untouched.

Read IFPTE’s letter asking for cosponsors for the Social Security 2100 Act here.