Social Security Expansion Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill defines switch Social Security COLA computation from standard CPI to Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), which better tracks spending patterns of elderly households, creates new minimum benefit for lifetime low earners with 10+ years of work, pegged to percentage of federal poverty guideline (6.25% for 11 years scaling to 125% for 30+ years), indexed to national average wage index, and exempts extension of child Social Security benefits for children of disabled or deceased workers who are full-time students at educational institutions (including higher education per Sec. It relies on tax rate changes, definition changes, price controls, and exemptions. The main policy areas are Social Welfare, Finance, Foreign Policy, and Education.
Who Benefits and How
Social Security Trust Fund could gain revenue opportunities, Social Security beneficiaries could gain revenue opportunities, and Lifetime low-wage workers with 10+ years of work could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
High-income earners above ,000 could face higher costs, Employers of high-income workers could face higher costs, and Active business owners above NIIT thresholds could face higher costs.
Key Provisions
- Defines switch Social Security COLA computation from standard CPI to Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), which better tracks spending patterns of elderly households.
- Creates new minimum benefit for lifetime low earners with 10+ years of work, pegged to percentage of federal poverty guideline (6.25% for 11 years scaling to 125% for 30+ years), indexed to national average wage index.
- Exempts extension of child Social Security benefits for children of disabled or deceased workers who are full-time students at educational institutions (including higher education per Sec.
- Expands applies the 12.4% Social Security payroll tax (FICA Sections 3101(a) and 3111(a)) to remuneration above ,000 in addition to amounts up to the existing contribution and benefit base.
- Expands applies Social Security self-employment tax (IRC Section 1401(a)) to net earnings from self-employment above ,000, parallel to the payroll tax expansion.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill defines switch Social Security COLA computation from standard CPI to Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), which better tracks spending patterns of elderly households, creates new minimum benefit for lifetime low earners with 10+ years of work, pegged to percentage of federal poverty guideline (6.25% for 11 years scaling to 125% for 30+ years), indexed to national average wage index, and exempts extension of child Social Security benefits for children of disabled or deceased workers who are full-time students at educational institutions (including higher education per Sec.
Key Policy Areas
Social Welfare, Finance, Foreign Policy, Education
Primary Purpose
The bill defines switch Social Security COLA computation from standard CPI to Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), which better tracks spending patterns of elderly households, creates new minimum benefit for lifetime low earners with 10+ years of work, pegged to percentage of federal poverty guideline (6.25% for 11 years scaling to 125% for 30+ years), indexed to national average wage index, and exempts extension of child Social Security benefits for children of disabled or deceased workers who are full-time students at educational institutions (including higher education per Sec.
Policy Domains
Section 2 - Across-the-board benefit increase
Identified Gains
- Social Security Trust Fund
- Social Security beneficiaries
- Lifetime low-wage workers with 10+ years of work
- Student children of disabled or deceased workers
- Educational institutions
Identified Costs
- High-income earners above ,000
- Employers of high-income workers
- Active business owners above NIIT thresholds
- Social Security Administration
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Sanders (for himself, Ms. Warren, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Welch, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Lifetime low-wage workers with 10+ years of work, Social Security Trust Fund, Social Security beneficiaries
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Commissioner of Social Security"
- → Administers recomputation of primary insurance amounts
- "Bureau of Labor Statistics"
- → Publishes CPI-E
- "Commissioner of Social Security"
- → Recomputes primary insurance amounts
- "Commissioner of Social Security"
- → Determines full-time student status
- "Board of Trustees"
- → Continuous body from prior trust funds
- "Secretary of the Treasury"
- → Managing Trustee of combined fund
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Full-time attendance at elementary school (under 19), secondary school, or institution described in Sec. 102 of Higher Education Act
A year to which 4 quarters of coverage have been credited based on wages and self-employment income
Annual poverty guideline for 2025 as published by HHS for a single individual
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology