Congressional Research Service Reports - 329 Matching Results
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- The Government's Long-Term Fiscal Shortfall: How Much is Attributable to Social Security?
- One reason that Social Security reform is on the congressional agenda is the large projected long-term fiscal shortfall facing Social Security, estimated at an average of 0.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) between now and 2080. But relatively little attention has been given to the potential long-term shortfall faced by the rest of the government, which is estimated to be more than 6.5 times larger than Social Security’s shortfall
- Social Security: The Cost-of-Living Adjustment in January 2006
- No Description Available.
- Social Security Reform: Growing Real Ownerships for Workers (GROW) Act of 2005, H.R. 3304
- No Description Available.
- Investing Social Security Funds in the Stock Market: Some Economic Considerations
- For the time being, Social Security receipts are more than enough to fund current benefits. But beginning in 2017, under current law, benefits are projected to exceed Social Security receipts. At that point, if not before, either benefit will have to be cut, taxes will have to be raised, or the shortfall will have to be made up either by tapping non-Social Security revenues, which would reduce the unified federal budget surplus or by an increase in federal borrowing.
- Social Security Reform: President Bush's Individual Account Proposal
- The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, commonly referred to as Social Security, is facing a long-term fiscal deficit. In response to this challenge, President Bush has made Social Security reform the key focus of his domestic social policy agenda during his second term. On February 2, the President issued a document, “Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century,” which lays out the specifications for a system of voluntary individual accounts to be phased-in as part of a reformed Social Security system. Administration officials concede that the individual accounts themselves do not alleviate the solvency problem. The individual account proposal would likely make the solvency problem worse over the next 75 years. The President has not yet specified how the additional shortfall due to the individual accounts will be financed. The President has stated that these accounts are just one piece of a comprehensive Social Security reform package and that additional measures will be needed to achieve long-term solvency. At the time of this report’s publication, the President has not specified what these additional measures might be.
- Mexican Workers in the United States: A Comparison with Workers from Social Security Totalization Countries
- On June 29, 2004, the United States and Mexico signed a Social Security totalization agreement, the effects of which depend on the yet to be disclosed language of the agreement. A totalization agreement coordinates the payment of Social Security taxes and benefits for workers who divide their careers between two countries. The agreement has not been transmitted to Congress for review, which is required under law before the agreement can go into effect. This report does not attempt to estimate the potential cost of a totalization agreement with Mexico or reach a conclusion on the effects of such an agreement on U.S. workers and employers. Instead, this report explores one of the issues concerning such an agreement.
- Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Medicare: The 24-Month Waiting Period for SSDI Beneficiaries Under Age 65
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: Summary of Program Solvency and Projections
- On March 23, 2005, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report to Congress on the status of the Social Security trust funds. The Social Security trust funds, under the latest forecast, continue to face long-range financing problems.
- Social Security Reform: Effect on Benefits and the Federal Budget of Plans Proposed by the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security
- In 2001, President Bush established the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security to make recommendations on ways to “modernize and restore fiscal soundness to the Social Security system” in accordance with six principles, one of which mandated the creation of voluntary personal retirement accounts. The Commission proposed three alternative reform models. Under all three proposals, workers could choose to invest in personal accounts and have their traditional Social Security benefits reduced by some amount. Model 1 would make no other changes to the program.
- Social Security: "Transition Costs"
- The Social Security Administration’s chief actuary forecasts that under current law, the Social Security Trust Funds will be depleted in 2042. Many Members of Congress have expressed concern that restoring the program to long-term fiscal balance will impose burdens on future generations by requiring them to pay higher taxes, accept benefit cuts, or undertake substantial government borrowing to pay the full benefits promised under current law.
- Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base
- Social Security taxes are levied on earnings up to a maximum level set each year. In 2004, this maximum — or what is referred to as the taxable earnings base — is $87,900. There is no similar base for the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) portion of the tax; all earnings are taxable for HI purposes. Elimination of the HI base was proposed by President Clinton and enacted in 1993, effectively beginning in 1994. Recently others have proposed that the base for Social Security be raised or eliminated as well. They complain that taxing earnings only up to a certain level creates a regressive tax. They point out that 94% of all workers whose earnings fall below this level have a greater proportion of earnings taxed than the 6% whose earnings exceed it.
- Social Security Administration: Suspension of Benefits for Fugitive Felons
- No Description Available.
- A Comparison of Benefits Earned Under Social Security and Civil Service Retirement
- This report provides a brief side-by-side comparison of Civil Service Retirement and Social Security benefits.
- Universal Social Security Coverage: Extending Mandatory Coverage
- This report is on Universal Social Security Coverage: Extending Mandatory Coverage.
- Social Security Student Benefits
- As part of his program for economic recovery, President Reagan included a proposal to discontinue social security benefits for 18 to 22-year-old students attending college or vocational school. Critics of the student benefit believe that other federally funded educational assistance programs which tailor the amount of aid provided to actual educational costs and family income should be relied upon to help finance the college educations of students who are children of retired, disabled, and deceased workers.
- Social Security Benefits for Prisoners
- On Mar. 24, 1983, the Congress adopted, as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1983 (P.L. 98-21), a measure to preclude virtually all incarcerated felons from receiving social security benefits of any kind, including retirement and survivor benefits. This action expanded previous legislation. In October 1980, legislation had been enacted (P.L. 96-473) that denied only social security disability benefits and student benefits to prisoners convicted of a felony.
- Social Security: Alien Beneficiaries
- Mounting concern about the payment of social security Benefits to aliens living abroad resulted in the enactment of legislation this year adding new restrictions on the payment of benefits to certain aliens, P.L. 98-21.
- Social Security Financing
- The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program, the largest of the social security programs, will not have sufficient resources to meet its benefit payments on time in July 1983. Even if the program were permitted to continue to borrow from the other social security programs, the financial the shortfall would re-emerge in 1984.
- Social Security: The Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) in January 1988
- No Description Available.
- Cash and Non-Cash Benefits for Persons with Limited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data, FY1981-83
- This report summarizes basic eligibility rules, as of May 1984, for more than 70 cash and non-cash programs that benefit primarily persons of limited income. It also gives funding formulas, benefit levels, and, for fiscal years 1981-1983, recipient numbers and expenditure data for each program.
- Retirement Savings and Household Wealth: A Summary of Recent Data
- No Description Available.
- Retirement Savings and Household Wealth: Trends from 2001 to 2004
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: How is it Treated in Determining the Federal Budget?
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: Reexamining Eligibility for Disability Benefits
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: What Would Happen if the Trust Funds Ran Out?
- No Description Available.
- Topics in Aging: Income of Americans Age 65 and Older, 1969 to 2004
- No Description Available.
- Topics in Aging: Income of Americans Age 65 and Older, 1969 to 2004
- No Description Available.
- Social Security's Treatment Under the Federal Budget: A Summary
- The treatment of Social Security in the federal budget is often confusing. In legislation enacted in 1983, 1985, and 1990, Social Security was excluded from official budget calculations and largely exempted it from congressional procedures for controlling budget revenues and expenditures. However, because Social Security represents more than a fifth of federal revenues and expenditures, it often is included in summaries of the government's financial flows, or what is referred to as the "unified" budget.
- Brief Facts and Statistics
- This report provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on its recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.
- Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Premiums: Fact Sheet
- Financing for social security -- Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance -- and the Hospital Insurance part of Medicare is provided primarily by taxes levied on wages and net self-employment income. Financing for the Supplementary Medical Insurance portion of Medicare is provided by premiums from enrollees and payments from the government. This report describes these taxes and premiums.
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI): A Fact Sheet
- The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, Title XVI of the Social Security Act, was enacted in 1972 and implemented in 1974 to assure a minimum cash income to all aged, blind, or disabled persons. SSI is provided to eligible aged or disabled individuals or couples who have limited income and resources.
- Social Security: Raising the Retirement Age Background and Issues
- The Social Security "full retirement age" will gradually rise from 65 to 67 beginning with people who attain age 62 in 2000 (i.e., those born in 1938). Early retirement benefits will still be available beginning at age 62, but at lower levels. To help solve Social Security's long-range financing problems, it has been proposed that these ages be raised further.
- Social Security: The Cost-of-Living Adjustment in January 2009
- The 5.8% COLA payable in January 2009 was triggered by the rise in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008. This COLA triggers identical percentage increases in Supplemental Security Income (SSI), veterans' pensions, and railroad retirement benefits, and causes other changes in the Social Security program. Although COLAs under the federal Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the federal military retirement program are not triggered by the Social Security COLA, these programs use the same measuring period and formula for computing their COLAs. Their recipients will also receive a 5.8% COLA in January 2009.
- Social Security Benefits Are Not Paid for the Month of Death: A Fact Sheet
- Social security benefits are not paid for the month in which a recipient dies. Legislation is routinely introduced that would either pay the full amount of the benefits for the month of death or pro-rate the benefits based on the proportion of the month that the recipient was alive.
- Social Security: Coverage of Household Workers - A Fact Sheet
- On October 22, 1994, President Clinton signed legislation (P.L. 103-387) that changes social security coverage of household workers. The new law changed the threshold to a yearly amount and raised it (to $1,000 in 1994, indexed thereafter to average wage growth-it became $1,100 in 1998, 1,200 in 2000, and 1,300 in 2001). It remains at $1,300 in 2002. In addition, the new law exempted most domestic workers under age 18, and provided that Social Security and unemployment taxes will be reported on the employer's annual federal tax return.
- Federal Employees: Pay and Pension Increases Since 1969
- Under the terms of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-509), pay for civilian federal employees is adjusted each year to keep the salaries of federal workers competitive with comparable occupations in the private sector. The annual increases in federal employee pay are based on changes in the cash compensation paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the ECI. Under certain circumstances, the President may limit the annual increase in federal pay by executive order. Federal law also requires Social Security benefits and the pensions paid to retired federal employees to be adjusted each year. The COLAs for both Social Security and civil service pensions are based on the rate of inflation as measured by the CPI.
- Federal Employees: Pay and Pension Increases Since 1969
- Under the terms of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-509), pay for civilian federal employees is adjusted each year to keep the salaries of federal workers competitive with comparable occupations in the private sector. The annual increases in federal employee pay are based on changes in the cash compensation paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the ECI. Under certain circumstances, the President may limit the annual increase in federal pay by executive order. Federal law also requires Social Security benefits and the pensions paid to retired federal employees to be adjusted each year. The COLAs for both Social Security and civil service pensions are based on the rate of inflation as measured by the CPI.
- Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Background and Funding
- The Administration's FY2012 budget would zero-out certain national activities related to Community Service Block Grant (CSBG), including Rural Community Facilities and Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals (JOLI). The budget requests $20 million for Community Economic Development (down from the FY2010 level of $36 million but more than the final FY2011 level of $18 million), and would target these funds toward the multiagency Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The Administration would fund Individual Development Accounts (IDAs, also known as Assets for Independence) at $24 million in FY2012, which is the same level as in FY2010 and FY2011.
- Federal Employees: Pension COLAs and Pay Adjustments Since 1969
- Congress has linked adjustments in federal pay to the ECI so that wages for federal employees will remain competitive with wages paid by firms in the private sector. Under the terms of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-509), pay for civilian federal employees is adjusted each year to keep the salaries of federal workers competitive with comparable occupations in the private sector. These annual adjustments in federal employee pay-which are distinct from any pay raises associated with within-grade step increases or promotions to a higher pay grade-are based on changes in the cash compensation paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the ECI. Under certain circumstances, the President may limit the annual increase in federal pay by executive order.
- Federal Taxation of Aliens Working in the United States
- This report outlines issues regarding the taxation of aliens since several pieces of current legislation have been introduced that would impose restrictions for claiming child tax credits or for claiming credits and refunds. The report includes an overview of immigration status, resident or nonresident aliens, taxation of income for various classifications, and Social Security and medicare taxes.
- Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Background and Funding
- This report looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty. CSBG was last reauthorized in 1998, although and related programs have been funded by Congressional approval since then.
- Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Background and Funding
- This report looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty. CSBG was last reauthorized in 1998, although and related programs have been funded by Congressional approval since then.
- Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
- This report looks at ways to overhaul the Social Security system due to a projected lack of system funds, which are estimated to become exhausted in 2041.
- Major Decisions in the House and Senate on Social Security: 1935-2010
- This report responds to the many inquiries that CRS gets for Social Security vote information, which range from requests for general information about legislative action over the years to requests for information about specific floor amendments. It is intended to be a reference document on the major statutory decisions made by Congress on the Social Security program. A detailed table of contents and a summary table of the legislation discussed are provided to aid the reader.
- Disability Benefits Available Under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Veterans Disability Compensation (VDC) Programs
- This report seeks to clarify why one group of individuals with disabilities may be eligible for benefits under Veteran's Disability Compensation (VDC), but ineligible for benefits under Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) (and vice versa), through a description and comparison of several distinguishing characteristics of the SSDI and VDC programs. This report concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing the administration of both programs, including processing delays for pending claims and appeals.
- Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
- This report explains what the Social Security trust funds are and how they work. It describes the historical operations of the trust funds and the Social Security trustees' projections of future operations. It explains what could happen if Congress allowed the trust funds to run out. It also analyzes two scenarios that assume Congress waits until the moment of insolvency to act, showing the magnitude of benefit cuts or tax increases needed and how such changes would affect beneficiaries.
- Social Security Reform: Current Issues and Legislation
- Report that looks at the Social Security debate, Social Security future projections, and public opinion on Social Security reform. It also looks at past reform measures, from the 109th-112th Congress, none of which received congressional action.
- Social Security Primer
- Report that provides an overview of Social Security financing and benefits under current law.
- Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress
- This report discusses the Civil Service Retirement Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-215) that established a pension system for federal employees in the executive branch of government.
- Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Background and Funding
- Report that looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty.