IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 258
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Social Security promise should 
be kept. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2003
Mr. SAXTON (for himself, Mr. SHAW, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. 
ROYCE, Mr. ISSA, Mr. DAVIS of Alabama, and Mr. WALSH) submitted 
the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Ways and Means 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Social Security 
promise should be kept.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This concurrent resolution may be cited as the 
‘‘Keeping the Social Security Promise Initiative’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds that—
(1) Social Security provides essential income se-
curity through retirement, disability, and survivor
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benefits for over 46,000,000 Americans of all ages, 
without which nearly 50 percent of seniors would 
live in poverty; 
(2) Social Security is of particular importance 
for low earners, especially widows and women caring 
for children, without which nearly 53 percent of el-
derly women would live in poverty; 
(3) each payday, American workers send their 
hard-earned payroll taxes to Social Security and in 
return are promised income protections for them-
selves and their families upon retirement, disability, 
or death, and that commitment must be kept; 
(4) Social Security payments to beneficiaries 
will exceed worker contributions to the Social Secu-
rity trust funds beginning in 2018, as demographics, 
including the aging baby boom generation and in-
creasing life expectancies, will result in fewer work-
ers per beneficiary and threaten Social Security’s es-
sential income safety net with financial instability 
and insolvency; 
(5) deferring action to save Social Security will 
result in loss of public confidence in the program, 
will increase the likelihood of spending cuts to other 
essential programs, and will expose beneficiaries, 
particularly those with low earnings, to poverty-
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threatening benefit cuts or reduce workers’ take-
home pay through burdensome payroll tax increases; 
(6) workers’ ability to save and invest for their 
own retirement will continue to be particularly im-
portant, especially for younger workers, to enhance 
their own retirement security; and 
(7) the President should be commended for rec-
ognizing that Social Security is not prepared to fully 
fund the retirement of the baby boom and future 
generations and for establishing the bipartisan 
President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Secu-
rity, which reported its recommendations in Decem-
ber 2001. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of the Congress that—
(1) the Government promise of Social Security 
benefits under title II of the Social Security Act (for 
retirees, disabled workers, and their families and 
survivors) must be honored, and management and 
control of Social Security by the Federal Govern-
ment must not be relinquished, and therefore the 
Congress rejects any effort to privatize Social Secu-
rity; and
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(2) the President and the Congress should join 
to develop legislation to strengthen Social Security 
as soon as possible, and such legislation should—
(A) recognize the obstacles women face in 
securing financial stability at retirement or in 
cases of disability or death and the essential 
role that the Social Security program plays in 
providing income security for women; 
(B) recognize the unique needs of minori-
ties and the critical role the Social Security pro-
gram plays in preventing poverty and providing 
financial security for them and their families 
when income is reduced or lost due to retire-
ment, disability, or death; and 
(C) guarantee current law promised bene-
fits, including cost-of-living adjustments that 
fully index for inflation, for current and future 
retirees, without increasing taxes.
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