The head of the Social Security Administration, Martin O'Malley, expressed concern that raising the retirement age would unfairly impact manual labor workers. This comes after the Republican Study Committee (RSC) put forth a proposal to raise the age.
The RSC, which represents almost 80 percent of House Republicans, unveiled a budget proposal on Wednesday to raise the age at which people can receive Social Security benefits in response to increasing life expectancy, without specifying the exact changes. The current full retirement age for the program is 67.
At a House Ways and Means committee hearing on Thursday, O'Malley stated, “[Americans] want their government to strengthen [Social Security] and expand it — not to cut it, contract it or gut its customer service.”
“For those who would advocate raising the age, I think we have to be mindful of people who do hard work their whole lives, and die sooner,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers criticized the RSC budget proposal.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that Americans should be forced to work till they drop dead,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.).
“Underfunding of SSA is an attack on hard-working Americans and their earned benefits — this is no entitlement, but earned benefits,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said.
Republicans largely avoided the topic during the hearing.
The RSC proposal mentioned that Biden supported raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 while serving as a senator in the 1980s. It also stated that action on Social Security was again necessary given projections that the program will be insolvent within a decade under the current situation.
“With insolvency approaching in the 10-year budget window, Congress has a moral and practical obligation to address the problems with Social Security,” the RSC proposal read.
Biden has suggested increasing payroll taxes on Americans earning over $400,000 to ensure the program remains fully funded.
O’Malley also showed support for President Biden’s call for providing 12-week paid leave for lower paid workers.
“It’s not right that we are one of the most developed economies in the world and yet one of very few that does not have paid family leave,” he said.
Biden picked O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, as the Social Security commissioner in December.
Biden has proposed increasing SSA’s discretionary budget to $15.4 billion — an increase of $1.3 billion — to address the agency’s administrative struggles, such as maintaining staff and a backlog in disability status applications.
“It’s been 9 years since Congress has given SSA a budget hearing, and in those 9 years it’s been a decline in service SSA provides,” O’Malley said.
O’Malley urged the committee to approve President Biden’s proposed investment into SSA, which he deemed “a solid step forward.”
