U.S. Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro and U.S. Congressman John B. Larson Protect Social Security Roundtable

By Barbara Heimlich, Editor

Congressman John Larson represents Connecticut’s First District, and sits on the influential House Ways and Means Committee—including the Subcommittee on Tax Policy and the Social Security Subcommittee, where he serves as the Ranking Member.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro represents CConnecticut’s Third Congressional District, which includes Stratford. She is Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and sits on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and she is the Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, where she oversees our nation’s investments in education, health, and employment.

A packed audience of all ages attended the round table discussion, which was held at the Baldwin Center and in collaboration with the Social Security Administration.

The discussion highlighted the efforts that Congresswoman DeLauro has been putting forth to protect and strengthen Social Security, and exploring the reforms that will ensure the system’s sustainability. She also discussed the potential impact of Project 2025’s proposal to push for raising the retirement age and implementing cuts.

Sixty five million, or 1 in 5 people over the age of 62 are on Social Security. In total, in 2024 seventy million Americans were on Social Security. Ten thousand Boomers a year now are applying for and receiving Social Security.

“Tens of millions people depend on Social Security as a foundational part and most reliable source of income,” Larson stated. “And the last time congress reviewed, enhanced, or expanded social security was in 1971.”

Congressman Larson said that one of the major arguments to raise the age to apply for Social Security was that people are living longer. “What is true about raising the age is that for every year you raise the age, there will be a 7% cut in benefits.”

It was also stated that there are more than 5 million people whose Social Security checks are below the poverty level.

A source of “untapped” benefits are from undocumented immigrants. If all undocumented immigrants were deported today, next year’s Social Security trust funds would have approximately $13 billion less for benefit payouts. According to New American Economy, undocumented immigrants contributed $13 billion into the Social Security funds in 2016 and $3 billion to Medicare. Three years prior, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, Stephen Goss, wrote a report that estimated undocumented immigrants contributed $12 billion into Social Security.  Approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. with no legal authorization to work, yet an estimated 8 million do, both on and off the books. Since undocumented immigrants don’t have Social Security numbers and are not authorized to work legally in the U.S., they are not eligible for any Social Security benefits, whether they’ve paid into the system or not.

Payroll tax, the 12 percent tax taken out of salaried workers’ paychecks, split between employer and employee, primarily funds Social Security, accounting for 88 percent of the payouts in 2017. Undocumented workers typically use a fake SSN or someone else’s SSN when applying for salaried jobs. Only a handful of U.S. states require employers to check an employee’s eligibility and their SSN through E-Verify, a Department of Homeland Security database. Other states have varying levels of E-Verify requirements, from partial to none.

The roundtable concluded with Congressman Larson and Congresswoman DeLauro conducting a Q&A.