Dick Durbin and a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Senators Promise Act Social Security on Tuesday, pushing Congress toward a vote on a plan to restore the program’s solvency for at least half a century. The bill is aimed at a retirement system that the Social Security Board of Trustees projects will face a funding shortfall in 2032.
Durbin, one of the bill’s authors, said, “The longer Congress waits, the more difficult it will be to address the program’s financial shortfall.” He added, “We were elected to solve problems — we owe it to our kids and grandkids to protect and strengthen this critical program.”
Dick Durbin and the sponsors
Durbin is joined by Tim Kaine, Angus King, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis in backing the legislation. Chris Coons and Alan Armstrong signed onto the bill right before its introduction, giving it support from senators and from a former House Republican Study Committee chief before the measure was filed.
The PROMISE Act stands for Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone. Under its structure, an independent, bipartisan advisory committee would make recommendations to Congress, and lawmakers would then have to take an up-or-down vote on a solvency plan rather than let the issue sit without a recorded decision.
Social Security’s 2032 shortfall
The timing follows the latest Social Security Board of Trustees report, which projects that Social Security’s retirement trust fund will run short in 2032. The bill is framed around a system that would still pay benefits after trust fund depletion, but at reduced amounts, making the size and timing of any fix more urgent for current and future beneficiaries.
Its backers are trying to break a pattern that has left Congress reluctant to act on Social Security, a program whose benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago. The bill pushes lawmakers to confront the shortfall through a formal vote, not a separate round of delay.
Congress and the 2024 effort
The challenge now is whether Congress will accept that pressure after a similar 2024 effort collapsed. House lawmakers then backed a federal debt commission that would have included Social Security and Medicare solvency, but Americans for Tax Reform lobbied against it and the plan fell apart.
The looming funding gap is tied in part to lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration and lower trust fund revenue after the costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that Donald Trump signed into law last summer. That leaves lawmakers with a narrow procedural choice: take up a solvency plan through the committee process the bill creates, or keep postponing the vote the sponsors are demanding.
