NCPSSM Letter to Appropriations Committee Fiscal Year 2025 SSA

The Honorable Tom Cole
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Patty Murray
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Susan Collins
Vice Chair
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
Chair
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Shelley Moore Capito
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Robert Aderholt
Chair
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairs Cole, Murray, Baldwin and Aderholt and Ranking Members DeLauro, Collins, and Capito:

On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to urge that you prioritize funding for seniors' programs in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Agencies. Members of the National Committee come from all walks of life and every political persuasion. What unites them is their passion for protecting and strengthening Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the other programs that are so vitally important to older Americans.

We understand Congress has many priorities to weigh as part of an appropriations process operating under significant funding limits, however, with thousands of baby boomers turning 65 every day - and the number of seniors overall projected to reach 74 million people, or 21 percent of the total U.S. population by 2030 - we urge you to focus on the need to safeguard foundational programs supporting older Americans both today and as the U.S. transitions to an older society.

Social Security is the foundation of retirement security for working Americans

We strongly urge you to, at a minimum, fully fund the President's budget request of $15.5 billion for the Social Security Administration's (SSA) FY 2025 administrative budget, and to provide sustained increased funding going forward until SSA's Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE) reaches 1.2 percent of annual benefits paid. This represents the level of funding historically provided to the agency prior to 2018 which allowed SSA to provide the superior levels of customer service American workers have earned. The President's request is well below both the $16.45 billion SSA itself submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and the 1.2 percent of outlays that was historically provided prior to 2018. Providing adequate funding in FY 2025 is especially important considering the seriously insufficient funding the agency received for FY 2024.

SSA has approximately 500 million interactions with the public each year through field office visits, call centers, and other engagements. While the agency has exceptional employees dedicated to serving millions of people, SSA is serving 50 percent more customers with less staff than they had in 1995. Since FY 2010, Social Security's customer service budget has declined in inflation-adjusted terms by 17 percent and its staffing by 16 percent, while at the same time the number of SSA's beneficiaries has grown by over 22 percent.

This long history of disinvestment in the Agency's core public services must be reversed if the American public is to receive the services they have already paid for through their monthly payroll contributions. Over the last four decades, these contributions from American workers have built up an almost $2.8 trillion surplus in the Trust Fund accounts, in addition to over $1 trillion received in Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) contributions each year. These funds are not only intended to pay the benefits workers and their families have earned, but also to cover the administrative costs of accessing these benefits.

The ability to access benefits is directly impacted when SSA is inadequately funded. The continued pressure of non-competitive wages, inadequate training and a mountainous and ever-expanding workload directly affects SSA's ability to attract and retain quality staff, essential for an agency whose clientele is heavily skewed to elderly and disabled beneficiaries and their families. The President's request is designed to allow the agency to continue ongoing efforts to re-build its workforce, thus allowing SSA to process increasing numbers of disability claims, reduce wait times on the national toll-free number and begin to address the pending backlogs. This funding request represents a solid first step toward what will need to be a multi-year effort to rebuild the agency's ability to provide the customer service America's workers and retirees deserve and expect.

Unfortunately, President Biden's budget proposal funds the production and mailing of only 15 million hard-copy Social Security statements. This proposal is part of SSA's overall plan to limit the distribution of statements only to individuals who are 60 or older who do not have an online account rather than sending them to all workers every year. The National Committee urges the Administration to develop plans to send these important financial planning documents to all workers 25 and older, as is required in section 1143 of the Social Security Act. We urge appropriators to include an earmark within SSA's administrative budget requiring that section 1143 of the Social Security Act be fully funded.

We appreciate your commitment to America's seniors and look forward to working with you to ensure the Social Security Administration has the resources to provide the customer service working Americans have earned and deserve.

Sincerely,

Max Richtman
President and CEO

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