«I want to get it done before we leave, so there is impetus to get it done,» Cassidy told CNBC.com in June. He has put forward what he calls a «big idea» fix: creating a separate investment fund for Social Security, modeled after changes made to the federal Railroad Retirement system under President George W. Bush.
Durbin has framed the issue in terms of intergenerational obligation. «Social Security is the bedrock promise of a secure retirement, earned after a lifetime of hard work,» he said in a statement. «But the longer Congress waits, the more difficult it will be to address the program’s financial shortfall.» In a joint statement released on June 10 following the trustees report, Cassidy, Durbin, Kaine and Tillis called on their colleagues to «join us in doing what we were elected to do — legislate on hard issues and protect this lifeline program for our kids and grandkids."
Competing fixes: investment funds, higher taxes, and a payroll cap debate
The PROMISE Act deliberately avoids picking a winner among the various reform proposals currently circulating in Congress. The bill’s sponsors acknowledge that the path to 60 Senate votes requires accommodating a wide range of approaches — and the policy menu is genuinely broad.
Cassidy’s investment fund model is one option. Others include raising the full retirement age, which would reduce the program’s long-term obligations, or increasing payroll taxes on high earners. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, recently co-authored an op-ed advocating for the removal of the payroll tax cap, currently set at $184,500 — meaning wages above that threshold are not subject to Social Security taxes.
The range of co-sponsors on the PROMISE Act itself reflects this ideological breadth: alongside Durbin and Cassidy, the bill is backed by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia; Sen. Angus King, I-Maine; and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina. The involvement of a Republican from Texas, a Democrat from Virginia, and an independent from Maine signals that the procedural approach — rather than any single policy solution — is the common ground its authors are betting on.
The PROMISE Act now heads into a legislative environment where the 60-vote Senate threshold it would itself require for a final Social Security bill will be the first real test of whether bipartisan support extends beyond the bill’s six co-sponsors. Cassidy and Durbin’s self-imposed deadline — the end of their current terms — gives the effort a concrete political window. The next scheduled milestone is the Social Security Advisory Board’s public input process, should the bill advance, and the next annual trustees report, which will either confirm or revise the Q4 2032 depletion projection.
