Rep. Mazie Hirono has released the following statement:

When Congress reconvenes in November, the House will vote on the Seniors Protection Act (H.R. 5987), legislation to provide Social Security recipients with a one-time $250 payment in 2011.

The Social Security Administration announced today that there will be no automatic Cost-of-Living-Adjustment for Social Security recipients in 2011. This is not the result of action or inaction in the 111th Congress. Since 1975, the Social Security Act has provided for an automatic increase in Social Security and SSI benefits if there is an increase in the Consumer Price Index over the previous 12 months. As the CPI did not increase due to the slowdown in the economy, there will be no automatic increase this year.

There are more than 160,000 seniors in the State of Hawaii who receive Social Security benefits. I am an original cosponsor of the Seniors Protection Act of 2010, which will be brought to the House floor for a vote when Congress reconvenes. The bill has 127 Democratic cosponsors; no Republicans have cosponsored the bill.

Although economy-wide measures of inflation show no net increase since the last COLA, many seniors have seen their cost of living go up – with increases in such items as uncovered drug costs, medical costs, and utility bills. Social Security benefit levels are quite modest – only $14,000 a year for the average retiree.

The median income for senior households is a mere $24,000, reflecting just how much Social Security means to most elderly Americans. Six in ten seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income.

About a third of retirees have little other than Social Security to live on. Thus I strongly support a one-time $250 payment to help seniors make ends meet.

Since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first signed Social Security into law in 1935, Democrats have worked to preserve Social Security and Medicare as a bedrock promise to our nation’s seniors, orphans, and people with disabilities.

I will continue to fight any attempt to break this promise by cutting Social Security benefits or raising the retirement age. I recently spoke on the House floor to oppose a new Republican plan to privatize Social Security.

I also signed a letter to President Obama and the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform urging that any efforts to reduce our nation’s deficit must not raise the retirement age or cut Social Security benefits in any way.

You can rest assured that I will continue fighting to preserve Social Security benefits.

Sincerely,

Mazie K. Hirono
Member of Congress
2nd District of Hawaii