Despite decades of warnings regarding Social Security’s looming insolvency, Congress has failed to enact comprehensive reform, largely due to political concerns. In a new insight, Director of Fiscal Policy Jordan Haring and Sean Atkinson discuss two approaches to improve Congress’ ability to address Social Security’s financial imbalance.

Key points:

• Leaders in Congress have introduced two bipartisan bills – one in the House, and one in the Senate – to change the process through which Social Security reform would be developed and considered.
• The two bills represent different approaches to congressional delegation; the Senate’s Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone Act would rely on the existing Social Security Advisory Board and preserve Congress’ ability to amend legislation, while the House’s Bipartisan Social Security Commission Act would establish a temporary commission whose recommendations would receive expedited legislative consideration with no opportunity for congressional amendments.
• While procedural reforms could encourage bipartisan negotiations and reduce legislative barriers, they cannot eliminate the difficult policy tradeoffs inherent in Social Security reform; Congress and the White House must be willing to both accept a political compromise and to endorse a combination of tax increases and benefit cuts that may be highly unpopular with voters.

Read the analysis.