[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 34 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMOVING SOCIAL SECURITY EARNINGS TEST

  (Mr. KUYKENDALL asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUYKENDALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge Members' support of 
a piece of legislation that will be introduced shortly in the House. 
That legislation is called the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act of 
1999 and it removes the earnings limitations that now exist in our 
Social Security laws. For 1999, this limit penalizes retirees with 
above $9,600 in earnings. For example, if the Social Security recipient 
is under the age of 65 and they earn $20,000, they would lose $5,200 
from their Social Security benefit. It is a little better if you are 
age 65 to 69. Then you would only lose about $3,500 in your Social 
Security benefits.
  This restriction on outside earnings dates back to the original 
Social Security law. In 1935, unemployment in the United States 
exceeded 25 percent, net new business investment was a negative $55 
billion, and national wages had declined from $50 billion in 1929 to 
$30 billion.
  In this environment, it made sense to provide a disincentive to an 
older generation of workers to remain in the work force. The government 
would take care of this older generation by ensuring a level of 
financial support we now call a social insurance system. In turn, new 
positions for younger workers were created, giving them the wherewithal 
to become financially independent from government assistance. Taxes 
from these workers would become the mechanism to fund the benefits 
payments to the retirees.
  Sixty-five years later, it is time to revisit the premise underlying 
this penalty. With record low unemployment rates, the annual earnings 
limit is an outdated disincentive that we cannot afford to keep. We 
need the expertise and wisdom that these workers can provide, but we 
make it punitive to compensate them for this value. It is time we 
change this provision of the Social Security Act. The Senior Citizens 
Freedom to Work Act of 1999 does exactly that and addresses one of the 
most unfair provisions of all, the penalty for working. I urge all of 
my colleagues to join me in supporting this important, and long 
overdue, piece of legislation.

                          ____________________