Durbin Joins Cassidy On The Senate Floor & Calls To Address Social Security Solvency Before The End Of The Year

August 04, 2026 Durbin Joins Cassidy On The Senate Floor & Calls To Address Social Security Solvency Before The End Of The Year Durbin: “The longer you wait, the more expensive it becomes to save Social Security. And we absolutely, positively have to save it. Too many people are counting on it.” WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) to raise alarms about the Social Security Trust Fund facing insolvency in 2032 unless Congress acts. Durbin and Cassidy have introduced the Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone ( PROMISE ) Act to initiate Congressional action on extending Social Security’s solvency. “What a treat it is to be on the floor of the Senate with a colleague on the Republican side of the aisle working together to try to solve a problem. It doesn’t happen much around here. You see these empty desks. They’re empty almost all of the days—week in, week out, month in, month out. We do important things like nominations—there’s nothing that’s trivial about that. But we don’t tackle the issues that really affect people at home with their families. Here’s one: Social Security,” Durbin said. The Social Security Board of Trustees’ annual report found that the Social Security Trust Fund will only be able to cover 78 percent of benefits in 2032—meaning that Americans who rely on the program will have their benefits reduced by 22 percent. In just six short years, the 70 million Americans who rely on Social Security will see their monthly benefits cut by an average of $450. Many beneficiaries have no other source of income and they depend on Social Security. “If this is your only source of income, imagine for a moment the $2,400 just lopped off $400 or $500 from the monthly payment. How does it affect you paying your rent, paying your mortgage, paying your utility bills, paying what it might take at the grocery store to get by? It’s going to be a real hardship, as Senator Cassidy said. For the senior citizens of America, it means that those under the poverty level will increase by 50 percent. We can’t let that happen. We have to do something about it,” Durbin said. That’s why Durbin introduced the bipartisan PROMISE Act —legislation that would create a transparent, fair, and bipartisan process to ensure Congress finally debates—and votes—on the future of Social Security. Under the bill, the independent Social Security Advisory Board would collect public input and send a proposal to Congress that would keep the Trust Fund solvent for the next 50 years, at least. That would begin a process in both the House and Senate to hold Committee hearings, offer germane amendments, debate competing proposals, and ultimately vote on them. “The bill that I’ve introduced with Senator Cassidy basically doesn’t pick a solution… it just says, don’t waste any time. Start talking about it, start debating it. Let the American people engage in this conversation with you and vote on some alternatives,” Durbin said. “Now, I’ve been a little disappointed, but not surprised, that some of my colleagues that I’ve talked to about this said they thought it was a good idea. But on reflection, they’ve decided it’s too risky—that we’re moving things too fast. The Senate’s never been accused, successfully, of moving too fast on almost anything. We take our time. That’s why we’re here… So, to my colleagues who oppose this approach, who say we need more time to do it, I want to back up Senator Cassidy. It costs money over time. It costs benefits over time—the solution becomes more expensive over time. The longer you wait, the more expensive it becomes to save Social Security. And we absolutely, positively have to save it. Too many people are counting on it.” Durbin concluded, “It is a great day in the Senate when a Democrat and a Republican stand on the floor and don’t criticize one another, but actually talk about working together. It’s been a real pleasure for me… We’re both ending our Senate careers on January 3rd of next year. We hoped that this would be one of the things we could achieve before we left. I’m still not giving up completely. Miracles do occur. But I had to step up and make a proposal with Senator Cassidy to get my colleagues in the conversation. The conversation about Social Security has increased dramatically since we started this effort, and I think it should. The sooner the better. The more expensive it becomes, the longer we wait.” Video of Durbin’s floor speech is available here . Audio of Durbin’s floor speech is available here . Footage of Durbin’s floor speech is available here for TV Stations. -30- Print Email Share Tweet