In Latest Sign Of Momentum, Eight Bank Executives Endorse Brown’s Bipartisan Push To Fix The Supplemental Security Income Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the latest sign of strong momentum for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) bipartisan legislation to fix the Social Security Income program, the executives of the eight leading banks in the United States endorsed the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act. The legislation, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Casey (D-PA), James Lankford (R-OK), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is the first bipartisan, bicameral bill to increase SSI’s asset limits and ensure disabled and elderly Americans can work and save for emergencies without putting at risk the benefits they rely on to live.
During the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee’s annual hearing with the big bank executives, Brown described how SSI’s outdated eligibility rules lock beneficiaries in poverty and that his bill – co-sponsored by BHUA Committee member Sen. Rounds and already supported by JP Morgan Chase – would raise the asset limit. When asked if the executives would join in supporting the bill, each of them confirmed they supported the measure.
“Fully and wholeheartedly,” added Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon elaborated, “we have employees who don’t want us to increase their salary because if it goes over a certain amount they can’t get [the SSI] benefit, which they’re entitled to. Or, they can’t have assets over [$2,000], so it definitely should be fixed and we fully support it, and we’ll try to be as helpful as we can.”
Dimon and Fraser were joined with a “yes” or “we do support it” by Bank of America Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, State Street CEO Ronald O’Hanley, BNY Mellon CEO Robin Vince, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman. Wells Fargo CEO and President Charles Scharf said “it sounds like something we’d be willing to support but we’d like to take a look at it.”
The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act would increase the asset limit to $10,000 for an individual and $20,000 for a married couple. The current limits have not been updated for inflation and have been stuck at $2,000 (single) and $3,000 (married) since 1984. The Bipartisan Policy Center calls this one of “the most regressive anti-savings provisions in federal law.”
Introduced in September 2023, the bill is also endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft, Transunion, the Kroger Company, the Food Association, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, AARP, Bipartisan Policy Center, The Arc, National Association of Evangelicals, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Jewish Federations of North America, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, American Academy of Pediatrics, Autism Society of America, CEO Commission for Disability Employment, Cure SMA, Coalition on Human Needs, Justice in Aging, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Down Syndrome Society, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Prosperity Now, Social Security Works, and nearly 300 other local and national organizations.
Watch the video of the executives endorsing the bill below:
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