United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2007-08-10 monographic deposited born digital 24 p. GA 1.13:GAO-07-621R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R P0b002ee180394702 f:d07621r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R GAO-07-621R Administrative costs Cost analysis Documentation Interagency relations Presidential messages Reimbursements to government Reporting requirements Travel costs Interagency agreements Reimbursements Correspondence A74227 Congress requested that GAO identify the official Social Security reform public speaking events and other promotion initiatives involving administration officials, and their costs to the federal government, since January 2005. As you know, the Social Security Board of Trustees is projecting in its 2007 report that as early as 2017 Social Security benefit payments will exceed tax revenues. After that time, the gap between costs and tax revenues grows continuously, and unless action is taken to close this gap, it is currently estimated that the Social Security trust funds will be depleted by 2041. In his 2005 State of the Union Address, the President emphasized the need to reform Social Security, and he announced his intention to work with the Congress to achieve reforms. On March 2, 2005, the Secretary of the Treasury announced the "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour in which the President and other administration officials would speak to the public about the need for reform in a series of town hall meetings across the country in an attempt to gain popular support for program reforms. Congress asked us to include events such as those associated with the "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour and initiatives such as the Social Security Information Center (SSIC) established at the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to provide a focal point for the administration's Social Security reform activities. To answer Congress's question about the list of public speaking events and other promotion initiatives, we relied upon information supplied by the Social Security Administration (SSA), Treasury, and the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including information posted to Treasury's and the White House's Web sites. To answer Congress's question about the cost of the public speaking events and other promotion initiatives, we focused our work on the activities of SSA, Treasury, and EOP, which accounted for approximately 75 percent of the public speaking events. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R.pdf GAO-07-621R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-621R Correspondence GAO-07-621R; Social Security: Costs Associated with the Administration's Efforts to Promote Program Reforms; Administrative costs Cost analysis Documentation Interagency relations Presidential messages Reimbursements to government Reporting requirements Travel costs Interagency agreements Reimbursements