Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) arrived in Newburgh on Aug. 15 to announce a new bill to address the looming bankruptcy of Social Security funds.
According to a May report by the Social Security Board of Trustees, two primary Social Security funds serving seniors, survivors, and disabled people are predicted to go broke in 2035.
“There is going to be a debate—and it has to come very soon—about how we bring more revenue into the system,” Ryan told reporters in front of the Newburgh Armory Unity Center, adding that his solution is in line with that of President Joe Biden.
“The heart of our proposal is that—from both a high-level value perspective and a dollars-and-cents perspective—any solution cannot make folks already struggling [pay more],” he said.
Ryan represents the 18th Congressional District in New York, which covers parts of Orange, Ulster, and Dutchess counties. The district is home to the former residence of President Franklin Roosevelt, who jumpstarted the Social Security system in 1935.
More than 104,000 seniors, 8,500 children, 7,200 widows and widowers, and 17,700 disabled workers in the district receive Social Security payments, according to Ryan.
His bill, H.R. 9341, advocates for two sources of new revenue to keep the system afloat—ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations—without going into the nitty-gritty of funding formulas.
Introduced last week, the bill now sits in the House Rules Committee and House Committee on Ways and Means.
Ryan contrasts his solution with that in a recent budget proposal by the conservative caucus in Congress, or Republican Study Committee, which favors program cost cuts over tax hikes and debt borrowing to keep the system solvent in the long run.
New York state Sen. Rob Rolison, state Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson, and Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey spoke in favor of the bill at the press conference.
Last month, the Social Security Administration relocated its Orange County field office from the city of Newburgh to a new facility on Crystal Run Road in the town of Wallkill.
The federal agency said in letters to local municipalities that the move allows it to continue services in a more centralized and modern space, whereas Harvey said the change caused inconveniences for his residents, many of whom have few transportation options.
Since he was first elected to a full congressional term in the fall of 2022, Ryan has run a signature mobile constituent service program, CARES, that carries his staffers on a van to 82 communities in his district to help residents navigate federal agencies.
So far, Ryan has introduced a total of 14 bills, most of which focused on benefits to veterans and military members, according to congressional records. He is the first West Point graduate to represent the Orange County-based national military academy in Congress.
Ryan faces Republican challenger and former New York Lt. Gov. candidate Alison Esposito this fall.
