U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Todd Young (R-IN), along with other Senate Finance Committee Republicans, would like an update on the status of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the group said that while those reports are to be issued annually by April 1, the last year the statutory reporting deadline was met was 2008. The reports are crucial to Congress for decision-making purposes, the group said.
“Congress continues to make key decisions regarding fiscal spending, and long-term outlays through the current budgetary window (2022-2031),” the group wrote. “Either through reconciliation or regular order, there is every expectation that Congress will consider additional healthcare-related legislation this year. Before Congress debates any further legislation that impacts either the Medicare or Social Security programs, it is imperative that policymakers have accurate and timely information regarding the financial operations of these critical safety-net programs. Exacerbating this problem further, since 2016, there have been no public trustees confirmed to serve as public voices in communicating the state of the trust funds to the American public. Denying participation of public trustees in the report development process effectively denies the American people a voice when it comes to Social Security and Medicare.”
In 2021, the group said, the report was not delivered until August 31. Further, the group said, while the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has made recommendations in recent years, they have not been fully incorporated into the process for developing the reports. The trustees had missed their statutory deadline 17 of the past 25 years, the GAO said.
The senators asked Yellen to provide to the committee an update on the 2022 report and when she expected it to be released, as well as the log of working group notifications to Congress on report timing over the past year, and any explanation on how she intends to change things to meet the notification guidelines.