Student Debt Relief Halted, Solar For All Program Funding Canceled, Protecting Social Security For Seniors, Highlighting Budget Bill Cuts To Impact Older Adults

Editor’s note: Senator Sanders has been very vocal about the damage that the recent cuts to federal funding, staffing, and grantmaking abilities are likely to have on the most vulnerable in our society – the disabled, children, seniors, and low-income individuals will find it even harder to make ends meet and obtain the services they need to lead healthy lives.  He was also against the crypto bill, which would endanger our financial system.  

Sanders Leads Bill to Reverse the Cuts Trump and Musk Made to Social Security and Protect Benefits

Video of Sanders Discussing this Bill below:

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, today announced he would introduce the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act.

The legislation — unveiled ahead of the 90th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law — reverses the disastrous cuts the Trump administration has made to the Social Security Administration (SSA), prevent Social Security field offices from shutting down, make it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to apply for the benefits they have earned over the phone and provide the resources the SSA needs to approve earned benefits quickly.

Joining Sanders as cosponsors on this legislation are Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angus King (I-Maine), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

“Since Trump has been in office, he has been working overtime with the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, to dismantle Social Security and undermine the faith that the American people have in this vitally important program,” Sanders said. “Thousands of Social Security staff have lost their jobs, seniors and people with disabilities are having a much harder time receiving the benefits they have earned, field offices have been shut down, and the 1-800 number is a mess. That is beyond unacceptable. On the 90th anniversary of Social Security, our job must be to reverse these disastrous cuts, expand Social Security and make it easier, not harder, for Americans to receive the benefits they have earned and deserve. That’s precisely what this legislation will do.”

Social Security is the most successful government program in U.S. history — paying out every benefit owed to every eligible American on time and without delay for almost 90 years, and helping millions of seniors, widows, dependent children and people with disabilities live with dignity. In 2023 alone, Social Security lifted 27.6 million Americans out of poverty, including more than 19.5 million seniors. Without it, nearly 40% of people over age 65 would be living in poverty.

The chart below shows, state-by-state, the number of elderly residents lifted out of poverty by Social Security: 

Despite the program’s success, the Trump administration has fired over 7,000 workers at the SSA, closed field offices throughout the country, required in-person office visits to receive benefits, limited access to a live operator when Americans call the 1-800 number for Social Security benefits, and issued false statements designed to undermine the confidence that the American people have in this life-saving program. Adding insult to injury, Trump has given the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) staff unfettered access to Americans’ most sensitive private information.

Trump’s cuts to the Social Security Administration could not come at a worse time. Even before Trump became president, the SSA was grossly under-funded and under-staffed. As a result, some 30,000 people with disabilities die each year waiting for their benefits. Trump’s dangerous cuts to Social Security will only make a bad situation even worse.

The Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act would reverse Trump’s cuts to Social Security and rebuild the Social Security Administration by:

• Protecting and improving Americans’ access to Social Security offices — prohibiting closures, relocations and service reductions, reversing Trump’s layoffs, and ensuring Americans can speak to real people to get their benefits;
• Increasing funding by $5 billion to improve customer service, modernize technology and reduce backlogs;
• Restoring assistance for vulnerable and disabled people to access their benefits;
• Safeguarding Americans’ data and stopping Trump’s politicization of Social Security; and
• Removing DOGE’s authority and calling for an independent investigation into DOGE’s actions at SSA.

The legislation is endorsed by several organizations, including: Social Security Works, AFSCME, Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Living & Working, Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center, American Association of People with Disabilities, Justice in Aging, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, New York Legal Assistance Group, and New Disabled South.

Read a summary here.

Sanders, Nursing Home and Long-Term Care Providers to Highlight Threat to Seniors from Medicaid Cuts in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP),  held a press conference with nursing home leaders and providers from across the country to raise the alarm about the disastrous impact of nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’

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“Just a few weeks ago, President Trump signed into law a bill that provides the largest tax break to billionaires in American history and the largest cut to Medicaid in American history,” Sanders said. “At a time when Medicaid provides the funding for nearly 60% of seniors who live in nursing homes and is the primary source of funding for home health care in America, this bill will be a disaster for elderly Americans throughout the country.”

The United States already faces a severe shortage of long-term care for aging seniors. In 2023, 55% of nursing homes turned away prospective residents due to staffing and funding shortfalls. Nationally, over 700,000 Americans remain on Medicaid waitlists for long-term home care. The cuts to Medicaid and health care funding in Republicans’ reconciliation bill will only make this worse: Nursing homes will close or downsize; states will be forced to reduce payment rates and will expose nursing homes to uncompensated costs. As a result, many nursing homes may convert long-term care beds to higher-paying post-acute care beds — or shut down altogether.

Home- and community-based agencies are also likely to close their doors or reduce capacity, leaving seniors and their families — in Vermont and across the country — scrambling to find safe, appropriate care for their loved ones. It will force family caregivers, mostly women, to drop out of the workforce and will likely shorten older Americans’ lives.

“It has been estimated that this legislation could cause more than a quarter of nursing homes in America, which were already struggling financially, to close their doors altogether, while more than half will be forced to substantially reduce their staff. That would be absolutely unacceptable. We should be making it easier for seniors to receive the care they need, not harder,” Sanders continued. “We must repeal these disastrous cuts to Medicaid and reverse Trump’s tax breaks for the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America. You don’t give tax breaks to billionaires while making massive cuts to programs that our seniors desperately need. Every member of Congress who voted for this absurd bill must be held accountable.”

Sanders was joined by nursing home and long-term care providers and leaders including: the CEO of LeadingAge, a national association of more than 5,400 nonprofit aging services providers in 41 states; the CEO of A.G. Rhodes Nursing Homes, who runs three nursing homes in Georgia; and the CEO of Center Circle Adult Day Services in Virginia.

Sanders, 10 Colleagues Demand Answers After Trump Halts Legally Mandated Student Debt Relief

BURLINGTON, Vt.– Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), alongside 10 Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon expressing outrage over the Trump administration’s harmful decision to indefinitely pause student loan forgiveness under the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan. The senators demanded clarity for the thousands of affected borrowers who have repaid their student loans for over 20 years and now face unnecessary financial harm.

Joining Sanders on the letter are Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

“At a time when Americans across the country are struggling to meet the costs of health care, food, housing, child care and other basic needs, it is unacceptable for the Trump administration to take any action that delays or denies legally mandated debt relief to borrowers that have been in repayment for two decades or more,” wrote Sanders and the senators.

The Trump administration’s July decision to halt forgiveness for borrowers enrolled in the IBR plan — without notifying affected borrowers or members of Congress — will create unnecessary confusion for those who have diligently made payments for decades. Without relief or further guidance, student loan borrowers who qualified for forgiveness under existing law could be denied the assistance they have earned or face significant tax bills next year.

The Education Department has misled congressional offices and failed to provide a timeline for when student loan forgiveness is expected to resume. The IBR plan currently serves 3 million borrowers.

“The department should not require borrowers who have fulfilled their legal repayment obligations to continue paying with no guarantee or timeline for relief,” concluded Sanders and the senators.

This harmful action is part of a broader pattern of attacks on student loan borrowers by Republicans. In June, Republicans in Congress passed Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, which would double student loan payments for the average borrower and increase college costs for working families across the country.

Read the letter here.

Sanders Statement on Trump Canceling $7 Billion for Solar for All

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today released the following statement after the Trump administration moved to cancel $7 billion in funding for the Solar for All program — legislation that Sanders wrote to provide loans or grants to working class families to help cover the cost of installing solar rooftops or participating in community-based solar projects:

I introduced the Solar for All program to slash electric bills for working families by up to 80% — putting money back in the pockets of ordinary Americans, not fossil fuel billionaires.

Now, Donald Trump wants to illegally kill this program to protect the obscene profits of his friends in the oil and gas industry. That is outrageous.

Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change. At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn’t just wrong — it’s absolutely insane.

We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program.

Banner Image: Senator Sanders in West Virginia.  Image Credit – Senator Sanders