Discussions in the United States Congress on social security reform are gaining momentum. The two-party senators introduced the PROMISE Bill, hoping to establish a special legislative process that would allow the long-stalled reform programme to enter the formal deliberative and voting process.

The bill is called the “Protection of Retirement Opportunities and Maintenance of Universal Income Security Act”. The authors include Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senators Bill Cassidi, John Cornyn, Thom Tillis and Tim Kaine and Angus King.

Pressure on the funding gap increased in 2032

According to the 2026 Trustee report, the United States Social Security Retirement Trust could run out in the fourth quarter of 2032, three months ahead of previous projections. If the retirement and disability trust fund are combined, the project will be able to pay the benefit in full until 2034, after which the proportion can be reduced to 83 per cent.

The report also shows that the payment gap for social security projects in the coming 75 years has risen to 4.42 per cent of total wages, up from 3.82 per cent previously. This change has again brought the issue of fiscal sustainability to the forefront of parliamentary discussions.

The focus of the bill is to establish a review path.

The Act itself does not directly provide for an increase in retirement age, tax increases or adjustment of benefits, but rather seeks to address another reality: In the past, parliamentarians had proposed a number of reform programmes, but they had hardly entered the vote.

According to the proposal, the leaders of the majority parties in both houses would first present a foundation bill; if the leader failed to act, other parliamentarians could do so. The bill will then be considered by the Senate Finance Committee and the House of Representatives Fundraising Committee and may be heard or amended.

The bill will then be considered by both houses of the Senate, which will be granted a total of 100 hours of discussion time. Members of Parliament may propose alternative amendments during this period, but the Senate ' s adoption of the amendments will require a 60-vote threshold and a final bill will require at least 60 votes to support it.

  • Retirement trust funds projected to run out: fourth quarter of 2032
  • Full payment period after consolidation of two trust funds: 2034
  • Percentage of benefits expected to be paid after 2034: 83%

There are still clear differences on the direction of reform

At present, there is no unified programme of reform within Congress. Bill Cassidy had previously proposed the establishment of an independent investment fund to improve the financial situation of social security, along the lines of past adjustments to the United States railway retirement system.

Other directions discussed repeatedly included raising the retirement age or raising the tax burden for high-income groups. Recently, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Moreno also advocated the removal of the current wage tax cap. The current ceiling is $18.45 million.

Proponents claimed that the aim of the procedural bill was to force Congress to deal positively with long-defunct social security issues rather than to continue to keep the reform at the stage of the proposal. As the time spent on funding continues to draw close, the issue of social security is also gaining weight in US fiscal and electoral politics.