On the recordJuly 27, 2020
Mr. President, I rise today to propose the TRUST Act of 2020. This is bipartisan legislation. It is sponsored by 14 other Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, and supported by 30 Members from each party from the House. Its purpose is to preserve the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, among others, both of which have been pushed closer to bankruptcy due to the pandemic. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects that Medicare Part A will now become insolvent in only 4 years, and the Social Security retirement trust fund by 2031. Under the law, insolvency would trigger drastic benefit cuts, or, if approved by a future Congress, draconian tax hikes. Our TRUST Act is designed to save these trust funds in addition to other vital Federal trust funds. The TRUST Act also addresses our ballooning national debt, a burden which has become even greater due to the COVID-19 crisis. The CBO projects that the Federal budget deficit will be $3.7 trillion this year. Our national debt will exceed $27 trillion. That could eventually mean backbreaking interest payments, runaway inflation, or national financial calamity. Modeled loosely after the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, the TRUST Act would create a process to rescue these funds. Under the bill, an individual rescue committee would be created for each of the trust funds. Each committee would be tasked with drafting bipartisan legislation that would provide for its solvency.…





