Larson Opening Statement at Joint Social Security and Worker & Family Support Subcommittee Hearing with Commissioner of Social Security, Frank J. Bisignano

[Perosino, Charles]

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 10, 2026	CONTACT Dylan Peachey
Larson Opening Statement at Joint Social Security and Worker & Family Support Subcommittee Hearing with Commissioner of Social Security, Frank J. Bisignano   (As prepared for delivery)   Thank you, Mr. Chairman.   Good to see you again, Commissioner Bisignano.   Yesterday, the Social Security Administration released the 2026 Trustees’ Report.   This report highlights what we have known for years – that unless Congress takes action, retirees face an across-the-board benefit cut.   Now we know that that cut will come in 2032 - less than a decade away!   And just last week, CBS News laid out the stakes for the American people.   If no action is taken, the average American will lose about $500 a month!   My home state of Connecticut will be hit the hardest, where seniors could see their earned benefits shortchanged to the tune of $556 monthly!   Yet, instead of working with Democrats to protect their constituents from this devastating cut, Donald Trump and Republicans are actively taking a wrecking ball to Social Security.   Just look at the facts: They have cut more than 7,000 staff from the Social Security Administration. They have closed regional offices. Last August, a whistleblower filed a report alleging that DOGE staff copied all of SSA’s data onto a potentially unsecure cloud. At the beginning of this year, the Department of Justice submitted court filing where the Trump Administration itself admits that DOGE staff at the agency inappropriately handled Social Security data and SIGNED an agreement with an outside political advocacy group to use SSA’s data to overturn elections. In March, another whistleblower came forward alleging that a former DOGE staffer bragged about having copied the agency’s data on every American to a personal thumb drive for personal profit and use in the private sector. We now have a new whistleblower allegation that DOGE staff at the agency had plans to mark 2.7 million living people as dead in an effort to pressure people to leave the country. They have done all of this because they are on a mission to privatize your Social Security and sell it off to Wall Street.   Don’t think for a second that this isn’t intentional. They want to destroy the legitimacy of the program, so they sell their plan to the American people.   We don’t have to guess their intentions. They’ve been very clear. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that the so-called “Trump accounts,” are a backdoor way to privatize Social Security, a sentiment recently echoed by Senator Ted Cruz.   Let me be clear – millionaires and billionaires do not need another tax cut.   Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and all their wealthy friends do not need more money. You know who actually needs help?   What about the nearly half of seniors who rely on Social Security for the majority of their income?   What about the 5 million seniors who live in poverty in the richest nation on planet Earth?   What about the nearly one million children that Social Security lifts out of poverty?   Does it not shock the conscience that Elon Musk stopped paying into Social Security before January 1st was even over, while an everyday American making $50,000 a year pays into the program every single day of that year?   Americans are facing an affordability crisis. They’re struggling to afford sky high gas prices, the result of the President’s illegal war in Iran. They’re struggling with increased costs due to the President’s illegal tariffs.    Among the people most impacted are seniors on fixed incomes and those that rely on them.   We need to protect Social Security for those people, not hand out tax cuts for Donald Trump and Elon Musk.   We need to enhance benefits for the first time in more than 50 years to help our seniors pay for gas for their tanks, food for their tables, and roofs over their heads – not cut services and slash staff so seniors can’t get ahold of anyone at the agency.   Social Security is the number one anti-poverty program for seniors and children.   It lifts more than 23 million people out of poverty.   Moreover, it is an economic catalyst for local communities, sending on average about $300 million to congressional districts across the country monthly. Think of how devastating that would be for local communities if we allowed that number to be cut.   And yet, just Monday of this week, Speaker Johnson claimed that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the problem – that we need to “adjust and fix” spending on those programs to address the national debt.   Make no mistake – Social Security is not an entitlement. It is the retirement insurance everyday Americans paid for with each and every paycheck.   How about this – instead of trying to cut this critical program that more than 70 million Americans rely on, why don’t we ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.   Instead of cutting taxes for the ultra-wealthy, let’s enhance benefits for the people that need it most.   Thank you. I yield back.   ###