Sponsor
Lateefah Simon
Representative · D-CA
The bill raises benefits and indexation tailored to elderly spending and temporarily cuts payroll taxes for high earners—improving benefit adequacy for future and elderly beneficiaries and boosting near-term take-home pay for some, while increasing long‑term Social Security costs and administrative complexity and concentrating benefits toward higher earners.
Seniors and future beneficiaries (those first eligible after 2030) will receive larger benefits because the benefit formula raises the lowest bend-point factor and adds a 5% surplus-AIME tier, increasing primary insurance amounts for affected retirees.
Social Security beneficiaries — especially elderly and early retirees — will get COLAs and early-retirement adjustments tied to spending patterns of older consumers (a new elderly-specific index), improving benefit adequacy for typical senior expenses.
Workers with earnings above the Social Security wage base and self-employed taxpayers will have a phased reduction in additional Social Security payroll taxation from 2026–2029, increasing near-term take-home pay for those high earners and providing modest short-term stimulus.
Taxpayers and future beneficiaries face increased long-term Social Security costs and solvency pressure because the payroll tax phasedown, higher PIAs, and potentially larger elderly COLAs together reduce receipts and raise outlays, which could require future tax increases, benefit cuts, or trust fund draws.
Employers, payroll administrators, the SSA and BLS will incur notable administrative, systems, and implementation costs and workload to adopt phased withholding, new benefit calculations, and the elderly index, raising compliance expenses across public and private sectors.
The short-term payroll tax relief is concentrated on earnings above the contribution base, meaning the benefits largely flow to higher earners and are regressive relative to program funding needs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Phases down payroll taxation on earnings above the Social Security base (2026–2029), revises the PIA formula for those first eligible after 2030, and switches Social Security COLAs to a new CPI‑Elderly.
Official title: To improve the retirement security of American families by increasing Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries while making Social Security stronger for future generations.
Introduced June 23, 2026 by Lateefah Simon · Last progress June 23, 2026
Representative · D-CA
Phases down Social Security payroll taxation on earnings above the Social Security wage base for 2026–2029, eliminating that extra taxation beginning in 2030. It also changes how future benefits are calculated—raising the initial bend-point factor, adding a fourth bend that pays 5% on ‘‘surplus’’ earnings, and resetting indexing rules for bend points for beneficiaries first eligible after 2030. Finally, it requires Social Security COLAs be calculated using a new Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI‑Elderly), with BLS directed to produce that index and the CPI effective for COLA determinations beginning with computation quarters ending on or after September 30, 2026.