The Social Security Act requires that trustees’ reports for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds be issued annually, and no later than April 1 of each calendar year.
While that apparently toothless deadline is frequently missed, it’s getting a little ridiculous this year, as it is August 9—130 days past the deadline—and mum’s still the word from the Treasury Department on when the much-anticipated report will be released.
Republican Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wants answers. Patience running thin, he penned a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Aug. 5 demanding to know when the report will be issued and what caused the long delay.
Crapo says the delay is especially troubling considering Congress is expected to consider further legislation this year that will affect Social Security and Medicare, and also notes that he and House Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Texas) asked about the reports many months ago and have still received no response.
“It is now early August, and Treasury officials have not yet contacted my staff regarding the anticipated release date for the reports. This lack of transparency and accountability over important federal programs like Social Security and Medicare to inquiries from a Committee of jurisdiction is concerning,” Crapo said in the letter. “It appears that any policies Treasury has formulated for reporting on late trustees’ reports do not comply with the spirit and intent of GAO’s recommendations.”
Crapo noted that according to a July 2019 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 2008 was the last year in which the statutory deadline had been met. The 2020 report was 21 days overdue, missing the deadline by fewer days than the past decade’s average, yet still late.
For the 2021 reports, on March 19 an official in Treasury’s Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) informed the Congressional committees of jurisdiction of expected delays of “at least eight weeks” in the issuance of the reports.
Finance Committee staff requested a status update via email from Treasury’s OLA on April 23, asking whether Yellen, as the Managing Trustee, expected the reports would be released by the end of May or if the eight-week timeline would slip even further.
“That request went unacknowledged and unanswered,” Crapo said in his letter, adding that a subsequent request a week later was also ignored.
“Finally, on May 13, 2021 my staff received a response from Treasury officials indicating that an internal inquiry would be made regarding the status of the reports’ issuance date, and that Treasury staff would follow up with the information soon,” Crapo’s letter continued.
Still no word from Treasury, prompting last Thursday’s letter to Yellen.
“Assessing the true nature of the trust funds’ current financial status is time sensitive. Reasons could always be concocted to explain away missing the statutory deadline. There are no repercussions to the Managing Trustee for failing to meet the statutory deadline. And, it appears that the reporting deadline has no operative meaning. I welcome any suggested legislative ideas from you to cure this problem,” Crapo said.
He continued to say that there is every expectation that Congress will consider additional legislation impacting Social Security and Medicare this year, and that Congress needs accurate information explaining the status of the two trust funds before debating further legislation.
“Please provide Congress and the American people with an expected delivery date of the overdue trustees’ reports. I also respectfully urge you, as Managing Trustee, to develop a better policy, more in line with GAO’s recommendations, for keeping congressional committees of jurisdiction and the American people regularly informed of anticipated trustee-report delivery dates when trustees miss the statutory deadline of April 1 of each year,” the letter concludes.
CBO provides update
As the wait continues for the 2021 annual report from the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, there was a recent update from the CBO.
The new projections from CBO, provided in a July update to its 2021 Long-Term Projections for Social Security first released in March, state that the Social Security Trust Fund is slated to be exhausted in 2032—which is a full year laterthan CBO projected last year, but is 3 years earlier than the 2020 Social Security trustees report, released in April 2020 (and notably written before the economy went into recession because of the coronavirus pandemic).
That now dated 2020 Trustees report finds the combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2035, the same as it projected in 2019, with 79% of benefits payable at that time. This is assuming there are no changes in taxes and benefits.
SEE ALSO:
- CBO Extends Timeline for Social Security Trust Fund Depletion
- Social Security Combined Trust Funds Projection Unchanged
Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
