brought both Ms. Woods and her nephew to shore.
  Thanks to their bravery and the rapid response of first responders,
an otherwise tragic outcome was averted. Their actions reflect the very
best of our great State, and I am proud to recognize these young men
today.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dashaun Brown, Ryan
Gillespie, and Giuseppe Marturano for their extraordinary heroism and
in expressing our deepest gratitude for their service to others in a
moment of urgent need.

      By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Tillis,
        Mr. King, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Coons, and Mr. Armstrong):

  S. 4979. A bill to establish a process to assure the long-term fiscal
stability of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and
the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund; to the Committee on
Finance.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to speak on a separate topic.
  In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt decided to try something. The
idea was to create a pension plan for every American. Why? Because many
people, despite working hard their whole lives, doing their best to
save money, ended up almost penniless when they retired, when they were
forced to quit working.
  Those were the days when Grandma and Grandpa moved into the spare
bedroom in your house. If that didn't happen to you, ask your father or
even grandfather--they will remember those times.
  So Franklin Roosevelt said: Let's create a pension system so that
after you retire, there will be some money coming in. You pay into it
all your working life. When you reach the age of retirement, you get a
benefit from it.
  They called it Social Security. It was passed into law in 1935. It
made its first payment 5 years later in 1940.
  I think it has become arguably the most important social program in
America. Certainly, more Americans have participated in Social Security
than almost every other program. And they should. They earned it. They
worked for it. They were promised. The promise should be kept.
  How is Social Security doing? Well, that is why I am standing here
before you today. Last month, the Social Security Board of Trustees
released an alarming report about the status of Social Security's
finances. That Board found that Social Security will be unable to make
full payments to eligible Americans by 2032. That is not that far
away--6 years. This is alarming, and it is a call to arms to Congress.
  I was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982. Scared to
death that I was going to be a one-term Congressman, I was looking over
my shoulder every 5 minutes to see what was going to knock me out of my
perch there.
  Well, they came in and said: There is news for you, new Congressman.
Social Security is about to go broke.
  The year was 1983, and we could see in the short term, Social
Security unable to make its benefit payments. That would have been a
disaster in 1983. We rose to the occasion. We had a Republican
President, Ronald Reagan. We had a Democratic House of Representatives
with Tip O'Neill. We set out to write a change in Social Security that
would save it so it could keep making payments. Well, it took a long
time, it took several months, but we got it done, and we passed it. Our
goal was to buy 50 years of solvency for Social Security, make changes
to the program so that it would last, keep paying its benefits as
promised for 50 years.
  That was 1983. I voted for it. Democrats and Republicans all voted
for it. To my knowledge, not a single Member of Congress lost
reelection over that vote. People said: We had to do it. There was no
question about it. It was a tough vote, but it was the right vote.
  It was 1983. Fifty years of solvency--where does it take you? To
2033. And what is the situation we were just told? This program that we
value so much is going to last until the end of 2032. It worked. Fifty
years of changes worked.
  Now the question is basically this: Can we respond with the same
bipartisan effort to buy 50 years more of solvency in Social Security?
I think we can. Social Security unable to make its payments in 2032 is
an alarm bell. It is a call to action for Congress, both political
parties--not just Democrats but Republicans as well.
  Social Security is the bedrock promise of secure retirement and has
been for over 90 years in America. Americans pay into the system
throughout their careers of hard work, and come the time, that same
program was supposed to be there to give them peace of mind when they
seek retirement. Well, we know we have 6 short years to achieve that.
  What is going to happen at the end of that 6-year period? The Board
of advisers tells us Social Security will only be able to pay 78
percent of benefits.
  Translate that, Durbin. Put it in English.
  That means the average senior citizen faces monthly--monthly--benefit
cuts of $450--$450 a month cut from Social Security. For some, that is
quite an inconvenience. For others, that is quite a disaster. It would
force many seniors to choose between purchasing groceries, paying their
utility bills, or filling their prescriptions. Honest to goodness, it
is that basic.
  Seventy million Americans, including seniors and people with
disabilities, rely on Social Security to afford the basics in life:
food, medication, housing, utilities, and so many other things.
  In my home State of Illinois, more than 2 million people receive
Social Security. Twenty percent of Illinois seniors rely on Social
Security for virtually all of their income. That is it, that Social
Security check.
  If Congress sits on its hands and does nothing to respond to this
crisis, millions of Americans will be expected to make ends meet with
fewer and fewer dollars each month.
  The fact of the matter is that Congress has known about this issue of
insolvency for quite some time, but year after year, Congress has
avoided confronting the question, instead kicking the can down the road
for a future Congress to show the courage to step up and save the
program. That is unacceptable. We owe it to our seniors. We owe it to
ourselves. We owe it to our reputation. We know that the longer we
wait, the more drastic the policy changes become. We owe it to every
American to save Social Security.