Military Construction And Veterans Affairs And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Motion To Proceed

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, last month the Social Security Administration announced some disappointing news. For only the third time in 40 years Social Security beneficiaries will not receive a cost-of-living or COLA increase in January 2016.

In Hawaii, one out of four seniors relies on Social Security as their only source of income. They are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, pay for medicine, and buy groceries--basic necessities. Many Hawaii seniors have told me their stories about how costs for essential goods keep rising while the Social Security checks do not.

Meanwhile, by contrast--and we heard this from my esteemed colleague the Senator from Massachusetts--the CEOs of the wealthiest companies in America are doing great. The average CEO at America's top 350 companies saw a raise of 3.9 percent just last year. Since the economic recovery of 2009, these CEOs have seen their pay increase by a whopping 54.3 percent. I have nothing against hard-working people, including CEOs, getting a raise. If CEOs came up with a good idea and they are managing a successful company, that is great for them, their companies, and one hopes for the company's employees, but did you know taxpayers are partly footing the bill for CEO pay raises?

The Tax Code today has a ``performance pay'' loophole that provides tax subsidies for high-level corporate executive compensation packages. That is why I am proud to join Senator Warren and others in introducing the SAVE Benefits Act. Our bill would provide a modest cost-of-living increase next year, the same 3.9 percent increase our Nation's top CEOs received this year. This would mean an average payment increase of about $580 for our seniors. This is money that makes a huge difference to all of our seniors. This one-time COLA payment would also apply to veterans' benefits--as my colleague Richard Blumenthal just focused upon--Federal disability insurance, and equivalent State or local retirement programs. To pay for this one-time COLA, our bill would close the tax giveaways to the wealthiest CEOs. Closing the performance pay loophole is a bipartisan idea, even supported by the former chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means in his tax reform proposal.

In the long run, we should also modernize the formula Social Security uses to calculate COLAs each year, and that is why I introduced the Protecting and Preserving Social Security Act, which would base COLAs on a more accurate formula of what seniors actually buy, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly or CPI-E. The CPI-E gives more weight to items seniors actually buy, such as medicine, housing, and home energy costs rather than electronics or clothing that younger workers buy more of. My bill would pay for the CPI-E by requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay the same rate into the Social Security trust fund that everybody else pays year-round. Otherwise, under the current law, once workers earn more than $118,500 in the year, they stop paying the payroll taxes that support the Social Security trust fund.

I was on the Senate floor last month and shared the story of one of my constituents from with Wahiawa, and it bears repeating. She wrote to me recently and said:

I find it incredible that there are people who actually believe that Social Security is too generous. The average Social Security benefit is a whopping $14,000 a year, and we've only seen an average 2 percent COLA over the past five years. I can assure you my health care costs have far exceeded that tiny increase.

Congress needs to listen to seniors like her and act to provide this modest one-time increase to help seniors make ends meet in 2016 and to change the way COLA is calculated. I urge my colleagues to join me in letting seniors in Hawaii and seniors all across the country have this one-time boost to their Social Security payments.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor the SAVE Benefits Act as well as the Protecting and Preserving Social Security Act.

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