Senator James Lankford is calling for a long term fix to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. Lankford and Senator Joe Manchin sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Ranking Member Ron Wyden calling for real reforms which will finish the job started in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.
In the letter, Lankford and Manchin reminded the committee leaders that he Bipartisan Budget Act’s reallocation of payroll tax funding from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund to SSDI is not enough to address the program’s crisis and protect the program in the long run for the beneficiaries who truly need it. It is within the 2015 annual report that the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees affirms that the SSDI program was approaching insolvency and that a reallocation of funds should not be considered a long-term solution.
Lankford has been a long-time proponent of reforming SSDI. He has made proposals in his time in both the House and Senate, including an amendment to the Bipartisan Budget Act which was ultimately defeated.
