Committee Leaders Blast Biden-Harris Administration’s Social Security Rulemaking Costing Taxpayers Nearly $40 Billion
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four finalized rules from the Social Security Administration (SSA) are the latest examples of the Biden-Harris Administration’s expansion of federal power at a substantial cost to taxpayers, write House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX), House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Work and Welfare Subcommittee Chairman Darin LaHood (R-IL), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Drew Ferguson (R-GA), and House Budget Committee Oversight Task Force Chair Jack Bergman (R-MI) in a letter to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley.
Over the next decade, these Biden-Harris rules, which circumvent the intent of the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act, will add $37 billion in new, unpaid-for spending within the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s failure to offset the costs of these rules will both run up the already unsustainable national debt and harm the financial health of the Social Security programs. Further, these rules were finalized at a time when the combined Social Security Trust Funds are expected to go insolvent and be unable to pay full benefits within the next decade. In their letter, Arrington, Smith, LaHood, Ferguson, and Bergman expose the Democrats’ smokescreen justification for the proposed rules.
The Letter Reads in Part:
“Under your leadership, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has quietly finalized four rules that continue the Biden-Harris Administration’s parade of regulatory overreach that circumvents Congress and costs taxpayers billions just months before the 2024 election…During your testimony at a Committee on Ways and Means hearing in March you claimed this rulemaking was done to reduce administrative burdens and simplify benefit calculations. However, the SSA estimates these rules, taken together, would increase program costs by nearly $40 billion while resulting in less than $1 billion in administrative savings. In other words, the SSA has taken four executive actions that obligate a substantial amount of new mandatory spending and taxpayer dollars to alleviate administrative burdens at an approximately 40:1 ratio.”
The Letter Further Reads:
“All told, these rules will result in more than $37 billion in new, unpaid for, mandatory spending. In addition, the increased cost to the DI program will contribute to the exhaustion of the Social Security Trust Funds which are projected by the Congressional Budget Office on a combined basis to be unable to pay full benefits within the next decade.”
Read the full letter here.
