Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. Sanders. Mr. President, later on this afternoon, we are going to be voting on a very simple and straightforward piece of legislation called the Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act. This legislation is cosponsored by Majority Leader Reid, Senators Leahy, Schumer, Sherrod Brown, Whitehouse, Stabenow, Begich, Casey, Gillibrand, Lautenberg, and Menendez.

What this legislation would do is, at a time when, for the second consecutive year, seniors and disabled veterans have received no cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, on their Social Security, this legislation would provide the equivalent of a 2-percent increase by providing them with a one-time $250 check.

In addition to the Senate cosponsors, this legislation is supported by President Obama, and I appreciate that. It is also supported, for all the right reasons, by virtually every senior organization in the country and every veterans organization, because this benefits not just seniors, many of whom are struggling hard to pay their bills, when their health care costs and prescription drug costs are rising, but it also impacts disabled veterans.

Also supporting this is AARP, the largest senior organization in America; the American Legion, the largest veterans organization in America; VFW; National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare; Disabled American Veterans; The Alliance for Retired Americans; The National Association of Retired Federal Employees; The Vietnam Veterans of America; and many other veterans and senior organizations.

Just this morning, earlier today, 253 members of the House, including 26 Republicans, voted to provide the same $250 COLA included in the bill that we are going to be voting on within a short time. So it won overwhelmingly in the House. In the House, they put it on the suspension calendar and it needed a two-thirds vote, but they didn't quite get that. I am confident that if we can come together here and get the 60 votes that we need, the House will reconsider the measure and pass it with a strong majority over there.

In the state of Vermont--and I think all over this country--seniors are wondering as to why they are not getting a COLA this year when they are experiencing significant increases in their expenses. And the reason they are not getting their COLA is that, in my view, we have a very flawed methodology in terms of how we determine COLAs for Social Security. What the Department of Labor now does is kind of combine all of the purchasing needs of all Americans--people who are 2 years old, kids who are 16 years old, and people who are 96 years of age. The flaw there is that while laptop computers, and iPads, and other communications technology may in fact have gone down, lowering the cost of inflation, the needs of seniors and what they spend money on have not gone down.

Most seniors spend their disposable income on health-related costs--visits to doctors, health care, prescription drugs. Those have in fact gone up. So it is unfair for seniors when all of the Americans' purchasing habits are combined, because I think what is not fairly appreciated is what they are spending money on.

To give you one example, the New York Times reported last year that 2009 marked the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992, with the prices of brandname prescription drugs going up by about 9 percent. Seniors spend a lot of money, not on flat-screen TVs or iPads or computers but in fact on prescription drugs.

According to the AARP's Public Policy Institute, the average price of brandname prescriptions most widely used by Medicare beneficiaries rose by 8.3 percent from March 2009 to March of 2010.

Since 2000, Medicare Part B premiums have more than doubled, and deductibles have increased by 55 percent.

Seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D prescription drug plans have seen their premiums increase by 50 percent between 2006 and 2010, including an 11-percent increase between 2009 and 2010.

In other words, the seniors who are calling my office, and I suspect your offices, and offices all over this country, are saying: Excuse me, our expenses are going up and we need some help.

This is especially true for the millions of seniors and disabled veterans who are living on limited incomes. They are in trouble. Furthermore, what I would say is that, in the midst of this great debate we are having now on how we go forward in terms of taxes, there are a lot of seniors out there wondering how we can provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the top 2 percent, yet we cannot provide a $250 check to a disabled veteran or a senior on Social Security.

This is a very simple piece of legislation. The House has already passed it with a strong majority. I hope very much we can pass it this afternoon.

I yield the floor.

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