But while the anxiety over cuts to Social Security might have increased with election victories that will put the GOP in control of Congress in January, everyone gathered in the Capitol Visitors Center meeting room knew that service reductions have been a reality for years, with Congress providing less money than President Obama requested.
“I’m fighting mad and I’m fired up and I’m ready to go,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We need to organize and we need to mobilize and we have to stop agonizing.”
Participants at the forum sponsored by the Strengthen Social Security Coalition are organized and mobilized, but they continue to agonize over recent reductions to staff and service.
From fiscal year 2011 through 2013, the Social Security Administration received $2.7 billion less than Obama requested, followed by a small increase in 2014, according to a Senate Special Committee on Aging report.
“The three previous years of low funding, combined with a wave of retirements and a hiring freeze that has been in place since 2010, led to a reduction in staffing throughout SSA’s operations,” the report said.