On the Hill This Month
There’s something different about a meeting on the Hill when the person leading it spent 24 years in the Air Force before he ever set foot in a congressional office. That’s Chairman John Adams for you. This month, he and TSCL staff carried our members’ voices into meetings with Representatives Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Steven Horsford (D-NV), two lawmakers who’ve shown up for seniors in very different ways, on very different sides of the aisle.
We went in to say thank you, plain and simple. Politics gets a lot of attention for its fights; it deserves a little credit, too, when someone’s actually trying to solve a problem.
With Rep. Malliotakis, that meant talking through her newly introduced The Nest Egg Protection Act (H.R. 9064). Here’s the issue in plain terms: a senior who bought their home decades ago, back when $30,000 bought a house, not a down payment, can now find that the equity they built over a lifetime triggers a capital gains tax bill the moment they try to downsize. The exclusion that’s supposed to protect them hasn’t moved since 1997. Malliotakis’s bill would raise it to $1 million for homeowners 65 and older who’ve lived in their homes for 25 years or more. We told her: this is exactly the kind of detail that gets overlooked until it hits someone’s kitchen table.
With Rep. Horsford, the conversation turned to his steady record of defending Social Security from cuts and privatization, and his push, alongside Rep. Larson and Sen. Warren, for emergency relief when costs spike faster than COLAs can keep up with. We shared what we’re hearing from members in real time: the gap between what a COLA promises and what it actually covers once Medicare premiums take their bite.
Two meetings, two different parties, one consistent message from Chairman Adams – Seniors are watching, seniors vote, and seniors notice who shows up for them.
Legislative News
H.R. 9187 — Bipartisan Social Security Commission Act of 2026. This one’s worth paying attention to. Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY), an odd-couple pairing that’s exactly the point, have revived the idea behind the 1983 Greenspan Commission: Get a small, serious group of lawmakers and experts in a room, give them a year, and make them find a Social Security fix that at least 9 of 13 members can agree on. If they do, Congress is guaranteed an up-or-down vote. With the trust fund on pace to run dry in 2032 and an automatic 22% benefit cut waiting on the other side, this is one of the few proposals drawing praise from groups that rarely agree on anything, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget among them.
H.R. 9064 — Nest Egg Protection Act. Rep. Malliotakis’s bill is now sitting in the House Ways and Means Committee, where it’ll need to pick up momentum and cosponsors before it goes anywhere.
Your Social Security Check Is Going Fully Digital
Here’s a heads-up worth sharing with every member who still waits for the mail carrier on check day: the Social Security Administration confirmed it’s completing the switch to all-electronic payments this year. Paper checks, it turns out, go missing or get stolen 16 times more often than direct deposits, not exactly reassuring math when that check is someone’s entire monthly income.
We know this isn’t as simple as “just switch online” for everyone, so here’s what actually helps:
- Set up direct deposit through a my Social Security account, or ask your bank to send your information to SSA directly.
- No bank account? The Direct Express® prepaid debit card still works electronically — call 1-800-967-6857 or visit GoDirect.gov.
- Genuinely can’t make the switch — remote location, health limitations, whatever the reason? A waiver through the U.S. Treasury is available. Nobody should be forced into a system that doesn’t fit their life.
We’ll be watching closely to make sure “efficient” doesn’t quietly become “left behind” for the seniors who need the most support navigating this change.
COLA Watch: The Math That Keeps Shifting
Here’s where it gets a little frustrating. TSCL’s latest read on the 2027 COLA puts it at around 3.8%, up from this year’s 2.8%, largely due to high gas and energy prices. Sounds like good news. It rarely feels like it.
One number from our latest Senior Survey stopped us in our tracks: 44% of retirees, or roughly 24.8 million people, now say Social Security is all they have to live on. That’s up from 39% just a year ago. When that many people are relying entirely on one check, getting the formula right isn’t a technicality. It’s the whole ball game. That’s part of why bills like H.R. 9296 (the Strengthening Social Security Act), which would shift COLA calculations to the CPI-E, keep coming back year after year. The current formula simply wasn’t built with retirees’ actual costs in mind.
The official 2027 number arrives from SSA in October. We’ll be ready with the calculator the moment it lands.
Do you have a bill you want us to chase down for next month, or a Hill story you’d like to hear more about? We’re always listening. comments@seniorsleague.org
