WASHINGTON (AP) — With Social Security's looming insolvency date roughly six years away, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a proposal Tuesday to grapple with one of the most consequential financial challenges facing the federal government.
The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone, or PROMISE Act, comes on the heels of the latest Social Security Board of Trustees’ annual report, which found that Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to face a funding shortfall in 2032, a year earlier than last year’s projections.
Even with it being clear for years that Social Security was running out of money, Congress has been loath to act. Making changes to the program — and potentially cutting benefits — has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.
“The longer Congress waits, the more difficult it will be to address the program’s financial shortfall,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “We were elected to solve problems — we owe it to our kids and grandkids to protect and strengthen this critical program.”
Durbin, who is retiring, is joining with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia; independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and outgoing Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina in backing the Social Security legislation, which calls for an “independent, bipartisan advisory committee” that would make recommendations to Congress.
Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Alan Armstrong, R-Okla., signed onto the bill right before its introduction.
The bill is designed to force Congress to confront Social Security’s long-term financing problem by guaranteeing that lawmakers vote on a solvency plan. It culminates in an up-or-down vote on a plan that restores Social Security solvency for at least half a century.
Committees, however, have been here before. That happened as recently as 2024, when House lawmakers undertook an effort with the backing of several in GOP leadership to form a federal debt commission that would include tackling the solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
The effort collapsed when Americans for Tax Reform — led by its president, Grover Norquist — aggressively lobbied against it.
Social Security's looming funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration and reduced trust fund revenue due to the costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, according to the Board of Trustees' report.
The looming challenge for the programs is a partial funding gap, not a collapse. Even after trust fund depletion, the system will continue issuing benefits, albeit at reduced amounts.
Traditionally, Republicans have been skeptical of endorsing tax increases, while Democrats have been critical of calls to raise the age of Social Security eligibility. In 2022, members of the House Republican Study Committee proposed raising the age at which someone could qualify for Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago, when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the program from 65 to 67, based on recommendations from a commission under the leadership of Alan Greenspan.
Still, there are ongoing bipartisan calls to find a way to provide long-term funding to Social Security.
Last month, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling for raising the cap on the Social Security payroll tax.
For 2026, the payroll tax cap, or maximum amount of earnings on which you must pay Social Security tax is $184,500.
Americans for Tax Reform organized a lengthy and aggressive rebuttal with comments from scores of conservatives in opposition.
FILE - A Social Security card is displayed Oct. 12, 2021, in Tigard, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The policy change came after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
The suspension allows room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending vehicle stops.
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn’t respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with U.S. President Donald Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
The shooting also sparked outrage in Maine, where hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday outside an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the crowd, including some who held signs reading "Stop the murder” and “End this terror.”
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Durán Guerrero's shooting marked at least the ninth time ICE has used deadly force since Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car’s windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
The state attorney general’s office, which noted that it's working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn't been released and who was placed on leave.
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an apartment about 150 feet (46 meters) from where his car came to a rest outside an apartment building across the street from a pawnshop and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business' security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocks its path and two officers open the driver’s door and drag out a limp body.
It isn't clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher said the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.
Neighbors say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak English.
Sadie Dilboy and Cory Poulin, who owns the laundromat near the intersection, said they saw Durán Guerrero all the time.
“Everyone knows him,” said Dilboy, who remembered that he often came to their store with his daughter and gave her quarters to buy candy.
Claudia Morton, who often waved to Durán Guerrero, was distraught. “The whole world should be crying,” she said.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Sisak from New York. Associated Press reporters Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
A man yells at a woman working security near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Protesters gather near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) CORRECTION: Corrects ID to Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero NOT Joan Sebastian Guerrero
A man yells at a woman working security near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Protesters gather near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Protesters gather near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Dr. Nirav Shah, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to reporters a day after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Attendees stand during a vigil after a man was shot and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A demonstrator fights back tears at an anti-ICE rally after a man was shot and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Blood is seen on the pavement near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A man pauses to view a makeshift memorial to the victim of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
