I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1118 
To establish a point of order against any efforts to reduce benefits paid 
to Social Security recipients, raise the retirement age, or create private 
retirement accounts under title II of the Social Security Act. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 16, 2011 
Mr. WEINER (for himself, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. JACKSON LEE of 
Texas, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. FILNER, and Mr. DEUTCH) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Rules 
A BILL 
To establish a point of order against any efforts to reduce 
benefits paid to Social Security recipients, raise the re-
tirement age, or create private retirement accounts under 
title II of the Social Security Act. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Social Security Protec-
tion Act of 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) Social Security is the most successful and 
reliable social program in our Nation’s history. 
(2) For 75 years, through good times and bad, 
Social Security has reliably kept millions of senior 
citizens, individuals with disabilities, and children 
out of poverty. 
(3) Before President Franklin Roosevelt signed 
the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, 
approximately half of the senior citizens in the 
United States lived in poverty; less than 10 percent 
of seniors live in poverty today. 
(4) Social Security has succeeded in protecting 
working Americans and their families from dev-
astating drops in household income due to lost 
wages resulting from retirement, disability, or the 
death of a spouse or parent. 
(5) More than 53,000,000 Americans receive 
Social Security benefits, including 36,500,000 retir-
ees and their spouses, 9,200,000 veterans, 8,200,000 
disabled individuals and their spouses, 4,500,000 
surviving 
spouses 
of 
deceased 
workers, 
and 
4,300,000 dependent children. 
(6) Social Security has never contributed to the 
Federal budget deficit or the national debt, and ben-
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efit cuts should not be proposed as a solution to re-
ducing the Federal budget deficit. 
(7) Social Security is not in a crisis or going 
bankrupt, as the Social Security Trust Funds have 
been running surpluses for the last quarter of a cen-
tury. 
(8) According to the Social Security Adminis-
tration, the Social Security Trust Funds currently 
maintain a $2,600,000,000,000 surplus that is 
project to grow to $4,200,000,000,000 by 2023. 
(9) According to the Social Security Adminis-
tration, even if no changes are made to the Social 
Security program, full benefits will be available to 
every recipient until 2037, with enough funding re-
maining after that date to pay about 78 percent of 
promised benefits. 
(10) According to the Social Security Adminis-
tration, ‘‘money flowing into the [Social Security] 
trust funds is invested in U.S. Government securi-
ties . . . the investments held by the trust funds are 
backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Gov-
ernment. The Government has always repaid Social 
Security, with interest.’’. 
(11) All workers who contribute into Social Se-
curity through the 12.4 percent payroll tax, which is 
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divided equally between employees and employers on 
income up to $106,800, deserve to have a dignified 
and secure retirement. 
(12) Social Security provides the majority of in-
come for two-thirds of the elderly population in the 
United States, with approximately one-third of elder-
ly individuals receiving nearly all of their income 
from Social Security. 
(13) Overall, Social Security benefits for retir-
ees currently average a modest $14,000 a year, with 
the average for women receiving benefits being less 
than $12,000 per year. 
(14) Nearly 1 out of every 4 adult Social Secu-
rity beneficiaries has served in the United States 
military. 
(15) Social Security is not solely a retirement 
program, as it also serves as a disability insurance 
program for American workers who become perma-
nently disabled and unable to work. 
(16) The Social Security Disability Insurance 
program is a critical lifeline for millions of American 
workers, as a 20-year-old worker faces a 30 percent 
chance of becoming disabled before reaching retire-
ment age. 
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(17) Proposals to privatize the Social Security 
program would jeopardize the security of millions of 
Americans by subjecting them to the ups-and-downs 
of the volatile stock market as the source of their re-
tirement benefits. 
(18) Raising the retirement age would jeop-
ardize the retirement future of millions of American 
workers, particularly those in physically demanding 
jobs as well as lower-income women, African-Ameri-
cans, and Latinos, all of whom have a much lower 
life expectancy than wealthier Americans. 
(19) Social Security benefits have already been 
cut by 13 percent, as the Normal Retirement Age 
was raised in 1983 from 65 years of age to 67 years 
of age by 2022. 
(20) According to the Social Security Adminis-
tration, raising the retirement age for future retirees 
would reduce benefits by 6 to 7 percent for each 
year that the Normal Retirement Age is raised. 
(21) Reducing cost-of-living adjustments for 
current or future Social Security beneficiaries would 
force millions of such individuals to choose between 
heating their homes, putting food on the table, or 
paying for their prescription drugs. 
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