Senate Democrats to Join Seniors and Veterans Who Will Deliver More Than 800,000 Petition Signatures Demanding a Vote on the SAVE Benefits Act

Contact: Linda Benesch, lbenesch@socialsecurityworks.org
               Lacey Rose, press@warren.senate.gov

Senate Democrats to Join Seniors and Veterans Who Will Deliver More Than 800,000 Petition Signatures Demanding a Vote on the SAVE Benefits Act

The Bill Would Make Up the Missing 2016 Cost of Living Adjustment for 70 Million Seniors and Veterans with a One Time $581 Payment

Washington, DC- This Wednesday, March 9 at 12:00pm ET Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will join seniors and veterans to deliver more than 800,000 petition signatures demanding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) bring The Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act (SAVE Benefits Act) to the floor for a vote.

Senator Warren and 21 cosponsors have introduced the SAVE Benefits Act to ensure that Social Security beneficiaries and veterans are not harmed by the failure of benefits to keep up with their cost of living. The SAVE Benefits Act would provide seniors, Veterans, people with disabilities, SSI recipients, and others a one-time payment equal to 3.9 percent of Social Security’s average benefit, or about $581 per person, paid for by the closure of a wasteful loophole that allows corporations to write off executive bonuses to their highly paid CEOs as a “business expense.”

This year marks just the third time in 40 years that Social Security beneficiaries, veterans and others will see no cost of living adjustment (COLA) in their benefits, despite the fact that the cost of prescription drugs and other expenses is continuing to rise.

Who:

  • Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
  • Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
  • Other senators
  • Nancy Altman, Co-Director, Social Security Works
  • Ben Wikler, Washington Director, MoveOn.org
  • Julian Blair, Grassroots leader from MD with a personal story about being a veteran on Social Security
  • Susan Taylor, Retiree impacted by rising prices

What: Delivery of 800,000+ Signatures calling on Sen. Mitch McConnell to bring the Seniors and Veterans Benefit (SAVE) Act to the floor for a vote.

When: Wednesday, March 9 at 12:00 p.m. (EST)

Where: U.S. Capitol grounds. The Senate Swamp is located on the grass across the drive from the east Senate steps.

Petition signatures collected by MoveOn.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Social Security Works, CREDO Action, Democracy for America, Campaign for America’s Future, and Service Employees International Union.