WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 5, 2021)—The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) has joined with a group of like-minded groups in the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) in urging Congress to protect vital programs like Medicare and Social Security from steep and unnecessary spending cuts that could cause considerable harm to America’s elderly and disabled populations.
NAHC is deeply concerned about efforts to include provisions of the Time to Rescue the United States Trusts Act of 2020 (TRUST Act), from the last Congress in the COVID-19 relief reconciliation package, the association said in a press release. The TRUST Act would create “rescue committees” to draft fast-track legislation to address the solvency of federal trust funds, including the Social Security and Medicare funds. The TRUST Act does not provide solutions for reaching solvency-or protecting benefits-rather, it would expose these vital programs to whatever across-the-board cuts the “rescue committees” may propose without amendment. This is nothing more than a backdoor means to make benefit cuts that would not be possible through the normal legislative process.
The reconciliation process is a powerful tool for enacting legislation with a simple majority of votes in the Senate. To protect Social Security from cuts through this expedited process, both the Congressional Budget Act and the Byrd Rule specifically prohibit including any changes to Social Security’s retirement, survivors, or disability programs in reconciliation legislation. Violation of these rules could not only jeopardize our country’s older adults and people with disabilities (who have contributed to Social Security and our communities for years) through cuts to Social Security but would also subject the reconciliation bill to points of order under Congressional Budget Act section 310(g), which, if upheld, would bring down the entire legislation.
The proper process for making changes to Social Security and/or Medicare is to allow the committees of jurisdiction to gather information from the public and expert stakeholders, hold hearings on relevant issues, and then develop legislation that takes into consideration the financial status, benefit adequacy, program structure, and needs of the people served by the programs. In our communication to Congress, NAHC has strongly urged lawmakers to oppose any effort to enact the TRUST Act or similar fast- track Social Security legislation as part of the COVID relief reconciliation bill.
NAHC will continue to advocate forcefully on this issue.
