Social Security in the 108th Congress
Kim Hildred, Majority Staff Director,
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security

Chuck Blahous, Special Assistant to President Bush for Economic Policy Several Social Security reform bills will be introduced this year, and although passage of any will be difficult, the need for reform is larger than ever according to two Social Security experts.

Strains on Social Security’s finances will grow significantly in the next decade, according to Kim Hildred, a staffer on the House subcommittee responsible for oversight of the program. Hildred noted that soon the first of the baby boomers will begin earning Social Security, the number of retirees will skyrocket, and all of them will live longer than previous generations. Action to respond to these financial pressures will become more important with each passing year, she suggested.

Hildred urged the audience to go to Capitol Hill and keep coming back to Washington every year if they want to encourage any legislative action on Social Security. “Turnover is high and memories are short,” she said, so the continuing presence of grassroots lobbyists like those attending the conference is essential.

Some bills could include mandatory Social Security coverage, but the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security had little enthusiasm for the idea, according to Chuck Blahous. Currently a member of the Bush Administration, he was the commission’s executive director.

Blahous reviewed some of the fiscal problems facing the Social Security system that the commission considered, as well as options for reforming the system. He said one significant fact the commission discovered was that the longer Congress waits to reform the program the fewer options there will be.

Including state and federal workers in Social Security would not solve the program’s problems, Blahous said. “You will have a burst of revenue, but then you have to pay all these people benefits.”

Hildred is the staff director of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security. Her background includes addiction counseling, state disability claims adjudication and various disability policy and program management positions in the Social Security Administration. She first came to the Congress via a fellowship with the American Political Science Association, and has worked on the Subcommittee on Social Security since December of 1994.

Charles Blahous is a special assistant to President Bush for Economic Policy, focusing on Social Security. He joined the National Economic Council last year. In May 2001, he was appointed by President Bush to be the executive director of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security.