The Social Security and Medicare Safe Deposit Box Act of 2000 makes any bill a violation of House rules if said bill takes money out of Social Security or Medicare for other spending. Further, the legislation prevents the federal government from counting the Social Security and Medicare surpluses as part of the general fund. In other words, these two programs now cannot be used to mask the true size of any budget deficit, as has been done for the past 30 years.

“Today the House took a significant step toward safeguarding Social Security and Medicare,” said Ryan. “This ends the smoke-and-mirrors accounting Washington has used to raid Social Security and Medicare. But there’s much more work to be done. This is a good sign for other elements of Lockbox legislation I’ve advocated.”

“The House should build on today’s success by approving more freestanding Lockbox legislation, like the bill I coauthored last year, that would pay down the public debt in 12 years and change public law to make it illegal for Congress or the President to ever spend any of the Social Security Trust Fund on anything but Social Security or Medicare,” added Ryan.

For additional information, please contact Kate Dwyer at (202) 225-3031.