15 Jul 2026 Fact Sheet: The PROMISE Act in Retirement and Social Security
The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone (PROMISE) Act (S. 4979), led by Sens. Durbin (D-IL), Cassidy (R-LA), Kaine (D-VA), Tillis (R-NC), King (I-ME), Alan Armstrong (R-OK), Chris Coons (D-DE), and John Cornyn (R-TX), establishes a legislative procedure to produce and consider legislation to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security’s trust funds. Furthermore, it would mandate a decennial review of solvency and re-trigger the same procedure if future shortfalls are projected. This bill would bring members of Congress together to do the necessary work to secure the earned benefits of Social Security for current and future beneficiaries.
The Challenge: Averting an Automatic Benefit Cut in 2032
The 2026 Social Security Trustees Report projects that the program’s primary trust fund will be depleted in 2032. Under current law, depletion automatically triggers an across-the-board benefit cut of 22% for every current and future beneficiary—roughly $10,560 per year for a married couple of average earners. The causes are well known:
- An aging population has strained a shrinking workforce. In 1960, there were five workers paying Social Security taxes per beneficiary; today that ratio is 3-to-1 and falling.
- Americans are living significantly longer, meaning record numbers of retirees are spending record lengths of time drawing benefits.
- The payroll tax base has shrunk from 90% of covered earnings in 1983 to 83% today, as wages above the taxable maximum have grown faster than those below it.
The program faces a 75-year shortfall that exceeded $25 trillion last year and worsened significantly in 2026 as SSA revised its fertility projections downward. The longer Congress waits, the larger and more disruptive the eventual fix will need to be. And fixing Social Security cannot happen through reconciliation or partisan legislation alone: it requires 60 votes in the Senate.
The Solution: A Path to Solvency
The PROMISE Act lays out an achievable plan to develop and consider Social Security solvency while ensuring Congress can properly debate the issue. It would:
- Direct the Social Security Advisory Board to gather public input, hold listening sessions, and submit recommendations and draft legislative language to Congress.
- Create procedures requiring both chambers to reconvene, introduce, and consider a “Social Security bill,” with committee reporting, certification deadlines, and a robust floor debate.
Furthermore, the bill includes numerous safeguards to ensure that the bill remains a clean, uninterrupted, and focused effort to address Social Security’s solvency issues:
- Require a three-fifths vote for Senate amendments and passage and a simple majority in the House on the Social Security bill.
- Limit provisions of the Social Security bill to changing outlays, revenues, or financing only.
- Coordinate action between the House and Senate, limit adjournment, and bar motions to suspend the process.
Finally, the bill mandates a decennial review of solvency, triggering the same procedure if future shortfalls are projected, ensuring that future issues with Social Security solvency are addressed ahead of time and providing additional security for future recipients of the program.
A Pathway for Established Policy Options
BPC’s own Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings showed more than a decade ago that fixing Social Security is achievable through a balanced package of benefit adjustments and revenue increases—one that would leave nearly every beneficiary better off than the automatic cuts triggered by current law. While policy leaders across the political spectrum have sounded the alarm on solvency since well before the commission released its findings, Congress has lacked a legislative mechanism to turn bipartisan agreement into bipartisan action. This bill provides that mechanism. BPC Action also recognizes that regular order and other procedural approaches can advance Social Security solvency, and we welcome efforts across all viable paths.
BPC Action Supports the PROMISE Act
“America’s current and future retirees deserve a Social Security system that is financially strong and able to meet its financial commitments to seniors. With the trust funds nearing insolvency, Congress cannot remain gridlocked. BPC Action endorses the PROMISE Act and commends Sens. Durbin (D-IL), Cassidy (R-LA), Kaine (D-VA), Tillis (R-NC), King (I-ME), Armstrong (R-OK), Coons (D-DE), and Cornyn (R-TX) for creating a serious bipartisan process to break the status quo of inaction. Their leadership should spur other members—and advocates committed to Social Security’s future—to come to the table, confront difficult choices, and help secure Americans’ earned benefits for generations to come,” says Michele Stockwell, president of Bipartisan Policy Center Action.
