The Honorable Bernie Sanders
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Charles Schumer
S-221 Capitol Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senators Sanders, Wyden and Schumer,
On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to endorse your bill, the “Keep Billionaires Out of Our Social Security Act”. 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.
As you know, Social Security is a critical earned benefit that American workers earn through their Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) payments with each and every paycheck. Part of this contribution is intended to cover the cost of administering the Social Security program, so that workers can fully access their earned benefits when they are ready to claim them. Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, Elon Musk, along with his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), have wreaked havoc at the Social Security Administration (SSA), triggering chaos and confusion for America’s seniors and their families.
The current Commissioner, Frank Bisignano, has continued many of these chaotic operations. He also has requested a finding level for SSA in Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) that would effectively continue the agency’s grossly inadequate funding level from Fiscal Year 2024. This requested funding level is seriously deficient. It will continue the deterioration of SSA’s customer service, and further the Trump Administration’s to-date disastrous efforts to replace trained, knowledgeable staff with chatbots and other Artificial Intelligence. A key element of your bill would restore funding for SSA operations to 1.2 percent of benefits paid – the level at which SSA was funded during the time its operations and customer satisfaction with services were at their peak. Restoring an appropriate amount of funding to this agency is a critical building block upon which SSA can restore its customer service to a level the American public expects and has earned.
In addition to restoring funding to SSA, your bill includes the following key protections:
- Protecting and improving field offices and staffing by prohibiting closures, service reductions, and relocations without Congressional approval. The bill also mandates staffing levels remain at least as high a pre-Trump Administration levels, (which were already near a 50-year low), and ensures beneficiaries can speak with live operators rather than Artificial Intelligence.
- Improving access for beneficiaries by reinstating key offices such as Civil Rights and Oversight, funding legal support grants for SSI and SSDI applicants, and limiting overpayment collections to protect beneficiaries from excessive reductions.
- Protecting Americans’ data by strengthening penalties for improperly disclosing or accessing sensitive Social Security records and blocking DOGE and political appointees from gaining access.
- Preventing politization of Social Security by restricting SSA’s ability to replace its career public servants with political appointees and preventing SSA from manipulating its data to take away Americans’ earned benefits.
- Removing DOGE’s authority over SSA and insulating the agency from President Trump’s DOGE Executive Orders. The bill also calls for the SSA’s Inspector General to investigate and report on DOGE’s activities at SSA.
We believe enactment of your bill is needed to undo the harm that has been caused by the Trump Administration’s reckless activities at the agency, which we believe are a precursor to privatizing the SSA’s operations and eventually the program itself. In light of the consistently strong opposition to privatization expressed by the American people, undermining public support for SSA would be a necessary first step toward achieving the goal long promoted by opponents of Social Security and Wall Street billionaires. Rebuilding this critical agency and restore the faith Americans once had in the dependability and stability of the Social Security Administration are essential steps toward protecting Social Security itself for today’s beneficiaries and future generations.
We thank you for your work on behalf of America’s seniors, and look forward to working with you on this legislation in the weeks ahead.
Sincerely,
Max Richtman
President and CEO