I am committed to protecting our seniors and preserving the programs that have kept so many healthy and out of poverty. I support preserving and strengthening Medicare, and I believe that turning Medicare into a voucher system would hurt seniors and raise barriers to care. In Congress, I will work to preserve and protect Social Security, for example by raising the cap on earnings subject to the payroll tax, and strengthen Medicare to protect patients and support the physicians who care for them.

I strongly oppose using the Chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for Social Security Benefits. While the budgetary challenges we face are serious, we should not be balancing the budget on the backs of seniors.

What I am Doing for You

I'm an original cosponsor of H.R. 5723, the Social Security 2100 Act, to increase benefits for all recipients by about 2 percent; improve the annual COLA formula to better reflect the costs incurred by seniors; set the new minimum benefit at 25 percent above the poverty line and tie it to wage levels to ensure that the minimum benefit does not fall behind; improve benefits for widows and widowers in two-income households; repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) that currently penalize many public servants; end the 5-month waiting period to receive disability benefits; provide caregiver credits to ensure that caregivers are not penalized in retirement for taking time out of the workforce to care for children or other dependents; extend benefits for students through age 22; and increase access to benefits for children who live with grandparents or other relatives. Presently, payroll taxes are not collected on wages over $142,800; this bill would apply the payroll tax to wages above $400,000, a provision that would only affect the top 0.4% of wage earners.

I cosponsored H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, two titles of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of Americans who have devoted much of their careers to public service. This bill ensures that a teacher who spends his or her summers working a second job or a police officer who changes careers after years of service will not face a possible 40 percent reduction in their Social Security benefits. (I previously cosponsored this bill as H.R. 141 in the 116th Congress, H.R. 1205 in the 115th Congress, H.R. 973 in the 114th Congress, and H.R. 1795 in the 113th Congress.

I cosponsored H.R. 2062, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, to overturn a Supreme Court decision requiring that individuals prove that age discrimination was the decisive and determinative cause for the employer’s adverse action, rather than just a motivating factor in the employer’s adverse action.

In previous Congresses: 

I cosponsored H.R. 3351, the CPI-E Act, to base cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly.

I cosponsored H.R. 4144, the Seniors And Veterans Emergency (SAVE) Benefits Act, to provide a one-time 3.9 percent COLA for 2016.

I cosponsored H.R. 775, the Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act, a bipartisan bill to repeal the Medicare cap on therapy services for seniors.

I cosponsored H.R. 1571, the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act, a bipartisan bill to deem an individual receiving outpatient observation services in a hospital entitled to Medicare coverage of any post-hospital extended care services in a nursing facility.

I cosponsored H.R. 4442, the CONNECT for Health Act, a bipartisan bill to expand access to telehealth and remote patient monitoring services under Medicare.

I have signed multiple letters in support of the Medicare Advantage program.

Rep. Swalwell helps make a Meals on Wheels delivery to an elderly couple in Dublin, March 2016.

I cosponsored H.Con.Res. 34, which expressed the sense of Congress that Chained CPI should not be used to calculate cost-of-living-adjustments for Social Security benefits.

I sent a letter asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to assume the Sustainable Growth Rate will be fixed when it determines physician payment rates for Medicare Advantage.

I voted against H.Con.Res. 25 and H.Con.Res. 96, the budget proposed by then- Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. These budgets would have ended Medicare as we know it; repealed the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, including preventive services for seniors; imposed drastic spending cuts; and given massive tax reductions for corporations and upper-income persons.

I cosponsored H.R. 1029, the No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act, to increase the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax from $113,700 to $250,000.