Americans are living longer, positioning retirement security at the forefront of issues of importance in the 21st Century. Reports from the U.S. Census indicate that nationwide, Social Security benefits lift nearly 13 million seniors age 65 and older above the poverty line. I am proud to work in a Congress where, under Democratic leadership, ideas jeopardizing federal Social Security benefits through any sort of privatization effort are off the table.

The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities reports that while Social Security’s trust fund faces a significant long-term funding shortfall, it will be able to pay full benefits until 2041 and about 75 percent of promised benefits after that. In fact, the Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years is about one-third as big as the cost of extending the current administration’s tax cuts during the same period.

In the state of Tennessee, 265,000 seniors are lifted out of poverty by Social Security benefits. It is important that Congress continue working to build upon the success of this program so that it can continue to provide benefits for future generations. In Congress, I have supported numerous pieces of legislation that would encourage working families to build or maintain a nest-egg to help ensure seniors are able to reap the full benefits of a lifetime of work and service:

H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2007
Amends title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions.

H.R. 368, the Notch Fairness Act of 2007
Amends title II of the Social Security Act to allow workers who attain age 65 after 1981 and before 1992 to choose either lump sum payments over four years totaling $5,000 or an improved benefit computation formula under a new 10-year rule governing the transition to the changes in benefit computation rules enacted in the Social Security Amendments of 1977.

H.R. 531, the Retirement Security Education Act
Establishes a grant program to enhance the financial and retirement literacy of mid-life and older Americans and to reduce financial abuse and fraud among such Americans.

H.R. 1380, the Social Security Benefits Fairness Act of 2007
Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to provide that, if an OASDI recipient dies during the first 15 days of a month, the last payment of the monthly benefit for that month shall be half the usual benefit amount.

H.R. 1428, the National and Guard Reserve Retirement Modification Act
Reduces the eligibility age for receipt of non-regular military service retired pay for members of the Ready Reserve in active federal status or on active duty for significant periods.

H.R. 1514, the Savings for Working Families Act
Allows certain low-income individuals between age 18 and 61 to establish tax-exempt individual development accounts (IDAs) to pay for certain qualified expenses, including education expenses, first-time homebuyer costs, and business capitalization or expansion costs.