HOUSE RESOLUTION 8

(By Delegates Pyles, Lynch, Iaquinta, Hartman, Love, Caputo, Ferro, Romine, C., Rowe, Fleischauer and Pethtel, Boggs, Lewis, Lovejoy, Maynard, Paynter, Rohrbach, Romine, R., Rowan, Sypolt, White, Eldridge and Longstreth)

[Introduced February 24, 2017]

Asking Congress to support legislation increasing the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment.

Whereas, Social Security payments have failed to keep up with rising retirement costs as a result of an inaccurate Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA); and

Whereas, For the past several years in a row, seniors have received record-low or zero Social Security COLAs and have been denied yet another adequate COLA for 2017; and

Whereas, Even before beneficiaries received a zero COLA in 2016, retirees were already struggling to afford basic needs, including the soaring cost of Medicare out-of-pocket expenses; and

Whereas, More than two-thirds of beneficiaries rely on Social Security for over half of their income and the average retiree receives benefits of only $16,000 per year, the annual COLA is critically important to millions of Americans who need it to maintain their standard of living and stay above the poverty line; and

Whereas, There is legislation pending in Congress to increase benefits by $70 per month ($840 per year) and providing a fair annual COLA reflecting rising costs more accurately; and

Whereas, This pending legislation strengthens Social Security so it can pay benefits for up to 45 years until the year 2062 by closing the loophole in the law that caps contributions at the $118,500 income level; therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Delegates:

That Congress should take immediate action to increase the COLA for Social Security and make appropriate changes in the Social Security Law to protect it for future generations of wage earners; and, be it

Further Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the West Virginia Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.