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CIVIC HERALD
HR 1700 · 119th Congress · HouseIn committee

Social Security Expansion Act

In plain language: This bill expands Social Security by increasing baseline monthly checks, raising minimum payments for lifelong low-wage workers, and adjusting annual cost-of-living raises to better reflect seniors' healthcare and household costs. It also allows eligible children of disabled or deceased workers to collect benefits through age 22 if they are enrolled in college or vocational school. These increases are funded by applying Social Security payroll taxes to wages and self-employment earnings above $250,000, significantly raising taxes on investment income for high earners, and merging the retirement and disability funds into a single trust fund.

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

Provisionalunreviewed: impact, issue tags, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affected—not determinable from the text provided (affects nationwide populations including Social Security beneficiaries, student dependents, and taxpayers earning over $250,000, but no population counts are specified in the text)
Fiscal magnitude—no CBO estimate published
Reach88provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
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Issues

What this bill touches.

Overall tax level+60Tax distribution+65Retirement programs+70

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Who it helps

  • Social Security retirement and disability beneficiariesIncreases monthly retirement and disability benefit payments starting in 2026 through an updated benefit calculation formula and higher minimum benefit guarantee, and updates annual cost-of-living adjustments using the CPI-E index (Sec. 2, Sec. 3(a), Sec. 4(a)).provisional
  • Full-time college and vocational students with deceased or disabled parentsExtends Social Security and Railroad Retirement child insurance and survivor benefits to full-time postsecondary and vocational students up to age 22 whose parents are deceased or disabled (Sec. 5(a), Sec. 5(b)).provisional

Who it burdens

  • Bureau of Labor StatisticsMandated to compute and publish a monthly Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) starting the year following enactment (Sec. 3(d)).provisional

Who backs it

  • High-wage employees earning over $250,000Subject to Social Security and Railroad Retirement payroll taxes on employee wages exceeding $250,000 per year (Sec. 6(a), Sec. 6(b)).provisional
  • Employers of high-wage workersMust pay the employer share of Social Security and Railroad Retirement payroll taxes on employee compensation that exceeds $250,000 per year (Sec. 6(a), Sec. 6(b)).provisional
  • High-earning self-employed individualsSubject to Social Security self-employment taxes on net self-employment earnings exceeding $250,000 per year (Sec. 7(a)).provisional
  • High-income investors and business ownersPays a significantly higher Net Investment Income Tax rate (increased from 3.8% to 16.2%) expanded to cover active trade and business earnings not otherwise subject to payroll taxes (Sec. 8(a), Sec. 8(b), Sec. 9(a)).provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) is coming in a later phase.

What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

  1. Increases monthly Social Security retirement and disability benefits starting in 2026 by raising the lowest earnings replacement factor from 90 percent to 95 percent and raising the first earnings threshold by 18 percent, with benefits recalculated for current beneficiaries.

    Sec. 2provisional

  2. Switches the formula for annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments to use the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) instead of the standard inflation index.

    Sec. 3(a)provisional

  3. Creates an increased minimum Social Security benefit for low-wage earners with at least 11 years of work, guaranteeing up to 125 percent of the federal poverty line for workers with 30 or more years of work starting in 2026.

    Sec. 4(a)provisional

  4. Extends Social Security child insurance benefits to full-time college and vocational school students up to age 22 if their parent is deceased or disabled, starting January 2026.

    Sec. 5(a)provisional

  5. Applies Social Security and Railroad Retirement payroll taxes to employee wages exceeding $250,000 per year starting the year after enactment.

    Sec. 6(a)provisional

  6. Applies the Social Security self-employment tax to net self-employment earnings exceeding $250,000 per year starting the year after enactment.

    Sec. 7(a)provisional

  7. Increases the Net Investment Income Tax rate from 3.8 percent to 16.2 percent and broadens it to cover active trade and business earnings not already taxed under payroll or self-employment rules.

    Sec. 8(a)provisional

  8. Merges the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and Disability Insurance Trust Fund into a single Social Security Trust Fund and permanently transfers 62 percent of net investment income tax revenues into the fund.

    Sec. 9(a)provisional

How your members of Congress line up

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Timeline

How it moved.

  1. Feb 27, 2025Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
  2. Feb 27, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Feb 27, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

Read it for yourself.

Read the original text →

Sources & provenance

Congress.govrefreshed 15 days ago

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