December 07,2020
WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the top Republican on the House Ways and Means
Committee Kevin Brady (R-Texas) today sent a letter
to the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration Stephen Goss asking
the Actuary to correct a misleading statement he made to Congress in a recent
congressional hearing.
Grassley, Brady Press Social Security Actuary to Correct Record on Misleading Claim on Average Wage Index
WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the top Republican on the House Ways and Means
Committee Kevin Brady (R-Texas) today sent a letter
to the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration Stephen Goss asking
the Actuary to correct a misleading statement he made to Congress in a recent
congressional hearing.
Before
the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Goss asserted that lawmakers decided
not to act in response to benefit effects of a 2009 decline in the National
Average Wage Index (AWI), because they somehow knew that a future
cost-of-living-adjustment would be relatively large.
Mr.
Goss told the Committee that "policymakers did recognize" that the
AWI had fallen in 2009, but Congress chose not to make any changes to the law
"mainly because the reduction in the AWI and benefit levels was small and
it was known that the first cost of living adjustment (COLA) applicable for
those affected would be relatively large."
The
testimony was in connection to the possibility that the AWI could decline this
year as a result of economic effects of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic,
which would affect beneficiaries turning 60 this year. The extent to which the
AWI as fallen in 2020, if at all, won’t be known until late 2021.
Chairman
Grassley and Rep. Brady told Mr. Goss in this letter, this was a
"misleading" statement.
"Given the importance of accurate
representation of decisions by the 111th Congress, we are seeking clarification
of this statement," Grassley
and Brady wrote.
The
Republican tax writers asked Mr. Goss to answer three questions:
1. What is the metric by
which you ascertain whether a benefit reduction is “small” enough to justify
lack of congressional action or large enough to justify action?
2. Please explain what you
meant by “it was known” what the 2011 COLA was going to be at the time the
2009 AWI reduction was announced on October 15, 2010.
3. When it was identified to
you prior to the hearing that your above quoted statement was misleading, you
declined to correct your testimony. Please explain why you chose to present
misleading testimony to Congress.
"The
role of the Chief Actuary ought to be much like an umpire at a baseball game,
whose job it is to call balls and strikes, and not like the broadcasters who
provide commentary," Grassley and
Brady stressed. "It is not the
job of anyone at the Social Security Administration to justify decisions made
by Congress and we are concerned by your recent attempt to do so."
Full
text of the letter can be found HERE.
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