A bipartisan group of senators is mounting a new effort to reform Social Security as the public benefits program faces a looming insolvency crisis.
Last month, Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, introduced the PROMISE Act alongside seven centrist co-sponsors, including Republican Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Democrat Chris Coons (D-DE).
The legislation would direct the Social Security Advisory Board, an independent bipartisan committee, to draft and send to Congress a bill that would keep Social Security Trust Funds solvent for at least the next 50 years. Lawmakers would then have the opportunity to debate, amend and vote on the measure.
“Here is our chance to agree on a bipartisan process to rescue Social Security this year,” Durbin, who — along with four of the co-sponsors — is slated to leave Congress at the end of his current term, said in a press release.
“Our bipartisan proposal opens Congress to debate this issue in a transparent, fair, and bipartisan way,” he added. “We were elected to solve problems — and there’s no greater problem than the solvency and future of Social Security.”
Social Security, which provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans, is barreling toward insolvency. This year’s annual report from the Social Security Board of Trustees found that the program will only be able to pay out 78 percent of benefits in 2032.
The shortfall is largely due to demographics: a growing share of baby boomers is leaving the workforce, while birth rates and immigration rates are projected to remain low.
Meanwhile, public support for stabilizing the program is overwhelming. According to an August 2025 survey from the Bipartisan Policy Center, 93 percent of Americans consider Social Security a valuable program, while 83 percent say shoring it up should be a top priority for lawmakers.
“This is the first time that Social Security solvency has gotten serious legislative attention on a bipartisan basis in several decades,” Shai Akabas, the vice president of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told NOTUS. “It is a major breakthrough in conversations that have long been stagnant.”
Still, despite the Senate Finance Committee holding its first hearing on the bill last week, the eight senators face an uphill battle to passage.
The proposal would likely contain something for everyone to oppose. While the legislation itself does not prescribe specific policy changes, maintaining long-term solvency would likely require some combination of tax increases and benefit reductions, NOTUS reported.
AARP, the nonprofit advocacy group representing Americans 50 and older, has urged lawmakers to reject the measure, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has pressed Democrats to oppose benefit cuts.
Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, told NOTUS that he has lobbied GOP lawmakers against the bill, calling it a “very real effort by the left” to persuade Republicans to greenlight tax hikes.
Complicating matters further, President Donald Trump has publicly vowed to oppose any cuts to Social Security.
Still, Durbin told the outlet: “Miracles do occur.”
