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(5) Medicare spending is put on a sustainable 
path and becomes solvent over the long term. 
SEC. 508. POLICY STATEMENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) More than 60 million retirees, individuals 
with disabilities, and survivors depend on Social Se-
curity. Since enactment, Social Security has served 
as a vital leg of the ‘‘three-legged stool’’ of retire-
ment security, which includes employer provided 
pensions as well as personal savings. 
(2) Social Security’s progressive benefit design 
provides lower lifetime earners with a Social Security 
benefit that replaces a higher percentage of their 
pre-retirement earnings than is the case for higher 
earners. Reforms should align with Social Security’s 
progressive nature. 
(3) The Social Security Trustees Report has re-
peatedly recommended that Social Security’s long- 
term financial challenges be addressed soon. 
(4) The financial condition of Social Security 
and the threat to seniors and those receiving Social 
Security disability benefits becomes more pro-
nounced each year without reform. For example, ac-
cording to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)— 
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(A) in 2025, the Disability Insurance 
Trust Fund will be exhausted and program rev-
enues will be unable to pay scheduled benefits; 
and 
(B) with the exhaustion of the combined 
Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance 
Trust Funds in 2030, benefits will be cut by 28 
percent across the board. 
(5) The recession and slow recovery exacerbated 
the looming fiscal crisis facing Social Security. The 
most recent CBO projections find that Social Secu-
rity will run a cumulative cash flow deficit of more 
than $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. 
(6) The Disability Insurance program provides 
an essential income safety net for those with disabil-
ities and their families. According to CBO, between 
1970 and 2018 the number of disabled workers and 
their dependent family members receiving disability 
benefits has increased by about 280 percent from 
2.7 million to close to 10.3 million. This increase is 
not due strictly to population growth or decreases in 
health. CBO also attributes program growth to 
changes in demographics and the composition of the 
labor force as well as Federal policies. 
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(7) In the past, Social Security has been re-
formed on a bipartisan basis, most notably by the 
‘‘Greenspan Commission’’, which helped address So-
cial Security shortfalls for more than a generation. 
(8) Americans deserve action by the President 
and Congress to preserve and strengthen Social Se-
curity to ensure that Social Security remains a crit-
ical part of the safety net. 
(b) POLICY ON SOCIAL SECURITY.—It is the policy 
of this concurrent resolution that the House should work 
in a bipartisan manner to make Social Security solvent 
on a sustainable basis. This concurrent resolution as-
sumes, under a reform trigger, that— 
(1) if in any year the Board of Trustees of the 
Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust 
Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust 
Fund annual Trustees Report determines that the 
75-year actuarial balance of the Social Security 
Trust Funds is in deficit, and the annual balance of 
the Social Security Trust Funds in the 75th year is 
in deficit, the Board of Trustees should, no later 
than September 30 of the same calendar year, sub-
mit to the President recommendations for statutory 
reforms necessary to achieve a positive 75-year actu-
arial balance and a positive annual balance in the 
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75th year, and any recommendations provided to the 
President must be agreed upon by both Public 
Trustees of the Board of Trustees; 
(2) not later than December 1 of the same cal-
endar year in which the Board of Trustees submit 
its recommendations, the President should promptly 
submit implementing legislation to both Houses of 
Congress including recommendations necessary to 
achieve a positive 75-year actuarial balance and a 
positive annual balance in the 75th year, and the 
majority leader of the Senate and the majority lead-
er of the House should introduce the President’s leg-
islation upon receipt; 
(3) within 60 days of the President submitting 
legislation, the committees of jurisdiction should re-
port a bill, which the House or Senate should con-
sider under expedited procedures; and 
(4) legislation submitted by the President 
should— 
(A) protect those in or near retirement; 
(B) preserve the safety net for those who 
count on Social Security the most, including 
those with disabilities and survivors; 
(C) improve fairness for participants; 
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(D) reduce the burden on and provide cer-
tainty for future generations; and 
(E) secure the future of the Disability In-
surance program while addressing the needs of 
those with disabilities today and improving the 
determination process. 
(c) POLICY ON DISABILITY INSURANCE.—It is the 
policy of this concurrent resolution that the House should 
consider legislation on a bipartisan basis to reform the 
Disability Insurance program prior to the exhaustion of 
the Disability Insurance Trust Fund in 2025 and should 
not reallocate funds from the Social Security Old-Age and 
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund without reforms to the 
Disability Insurance system. This concurrent resolution 
assumes reform that— 
(1) promotes opportunity for those trying to re-
turn to work; 
(2) ensures benefits continue to be paid to indi-
viduals with disabilities and their family members 
who rely on them; 
(3) prevents a 12 percent across-the-board ben-
efit cut; and 
(4) improves the Disability Insurance program. 
(d) POLICY ON SOCIAL SECURITY SOLVENCY.—It is 
the policy of this concurrent resolution that any legislation 
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the House considers to improve the solvency of the Dis-
ability Insurance Trust Fund must also improve the long- 
term solvency of the combined Old Age and Survivors Dis-
ability Insurance Trust Funds. 
SEC. 509. POLICY STATEMENT ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND 
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY. 
(a) FINDINGS ON HIGHER EDUCATION.—The House 
finds the following: 
(1) A well-educated, high-skilled workforce is 
critical to economic, job, and wage growth. 
(2) Average published tuition and fees have in-
creased consistently above the rate of inflation 
across all types of colleges and universities. 
(3) With an outstanding student loan portfolio 
of nearly $1.4 trillion, the Federal Government is 
the largest education lender to undergraduate and 
graduate students, parents, and other guarantors. 
(4) Students who do not complete their college 
degree are at a greater risk of defaulting on their 
loans than those who complete their degree. 
(5) Participation in Federal income-driven re-
payment plans is rising, in terms of the percent of 
both borrowers and loan dollars, according to the 
Government Accountability Office. Because these 
plans offer loan balance forgiveness after a repay-
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ment period, this increased use portends higher pro-
jected costs to taxpayers. 
(b) POLICY ON HIGHER EDUCATION.—It is the policy 
of this concurrent resolution to promote college afford-
ability, access, and success by— 
(1) reserving Federal financial aid for those 
most in need and streamlining grant and loan aid 
programs to help students and families more easily 
assess their options for financing postsecondary edu-
cation; and 
(2) removing regulatory barriers to reduce 
costs, increase access, and allow for innovative 
teaching models. 
(c) FINDINGS ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.—The 
House finds the following: 
(1) 6.1 million Americans are currently unem-
ployed. 
(2) Despite billions of dollars in spending, those 
looking for work are stymied by a broken workforce 
development system that fails to connect workers 
with assistance and employers with skilled personnel. 
(3) The House Committee on Education and 
the Workforce successfully consolidated 15 workforce 
development programs when Congress enacted the 
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in 2014. 
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(d) POLICY ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.—It is 
the policy of this concurrent resolution to build on the suc-
cess of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 
by— 
(1) further streamlining and consolidating Fed-
eral workforce development programs; and 
(2) empowering States with the flexibility to 
tailor funding and programs to the specific needs of 
their workforce. 
SEC. 510. POLICY STATEMENT ON THE JUDGMENT FUND. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) The Judgment Fund (Fund), established in 
1956, was created to pay judgments and settlements 
of lawsuits against the Federal Government. 
(2) As a result of the Fund’s design, it is ripe 
for executive branch exploitation. The Obama Ad-
ministration used the Fund to make billions of dol-
lars in payments to Federal agencies and foreign en-
tities. For example— 
(A) on January 17, 2016, the State De-
partment announced the Federal Government 
agreed to pay the Iranian government $1.7 bil-
lion to settle a case related to the sale of mili-
tary equipment prior to the Iranian revolution, 
of which $1.3 billion was sourced through the 
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Fund, without prior congressional notification; 
the Obama Administration’s use of the Fund to 
make this and other payments raises serious 
concerns by sidestepping Congress; and 
(B) in 2016, the Department of Health 
and Human Services announced its intentions 
to use the Fund for settlements with health in-
surers who sued the Federal Government over 
the loss of funds for risk corridors under the 
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 
(3) Failing to address the lack of oversight over 
the Fund annually costs taxpayers billions of dollars, 
payments exceeded $3.8 billion in 2017, $4.5 billion 
in 2016, and almost $29 billion in the preceding 10- 
year period. 
(b) POLICY ON JUDGMENT FUND.—It is the policy 
of this concurrent resolution that the House should con-
sider legislation that reclaims Congress’s power of the 
purse over the Fund. Such legislation should— 
(1) prohibit interest payments paid from the 
Fund for accounts or assets frozen by the Federal 
Government and listed on— 
(A) the Sanctions Programs list of the Of-
fice of Foreign Asset Control of the Depart-
ment of Treasury; or 
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(B) Sponsors of Terrorism list of the De-
partment of State; 
(2) amend sections 2414 and 1304 of titles 28 
and 31, United States Code, respectively, to— 
(A) provide a clear definition and expla-
nation of a ‘‘foreign court or tribunal’’; and 
(B) 
require 
congressional 
notification 
whenever the Fund makes a settlement or court 
ordered lump sum or aggregated payment ex-
ceeding $500 million; and 
(3) require legislative action to approve pay-
ments from the Fund in excess of a specified thresh-
old, increase transparency, and require Federal 
agencies to reimburse the Fund over a fixed time pe-
riod. 
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