1225 Eye St NW,Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 bipartisanpolicy.org 202 - 204 - 2400 Social Security and Medicare are critical social insurance programs upon which millions of American workers and retirees rely. Lately, however, these programs have lacked a key component of public oversight. Specifically, for the past four years, the Boards of Trustees that look after these important national programs have been without the two Public Trustees, leading to a record-breaking period in which these positions have been vacant. The Boards of Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds provide crucial oversight of Social Security and Medicare. The 1983 Social Security Amendments introduced the Public Trustees to serve as independent voices on the Boards. Detached from partisan politics and the perspective of any particular administration, the two Public Trustees report on the status of the Trust Funds to Congress and the American people, helping to preserve public confidence in the financial management of Medicare and Social Security. These positions have been vacant since 2015, violating the intent of federal law and depriving Congress and the public of key objective insights into the health of the Trust Funds. It is imperative that the vacancies are filled expeditiously to ensure the proper monitoring and safeguarding of the funds that help provide a secure financial foundation for millions of Americans. This is especially true at a time when both programs face significant long-range financing challenges. We urge the United States Senate to act on the pending nominees as soon as possible to provide independent and bipartisan oversight of the programs’ finances. Sincerely, Henry J. Aaron Shai Akabas Joseph R. Antos Member of the Social Director of Economic Policy Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Security Advisory Board; Bipartisan Policy Center Health Care and Retirement Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Policy Senior Fellow, The Brookings Barry Anderson American Enterprise Institution Former Congressional Institute Budget Office Acting Loren Adler Director; William J. Arnone Associate Director Office of Management and Chief Executive Officer USC-Brookings Schaeffer Budget Senior Career Official National Academy of Social Initiative for Health Policy Insurance Michael J. Astrue Erskine Bowles Dan Crippen Former Commissioner of the Co-Chair Former Director, Social Security The National Commission on Congressional Budget Office; Administration Fiscal Responsibility and Chairman, Social Security Reform Technical Advisory Panel on G. Lawrence Atkins Assumptions and Methods Research Director Chantel Boyens Long-Term Quality Alliance Principal Policy Associate Francis J. Crosson Urban Institute Chairman Todd Barth Medicare Payment Advisory President, Bowers Properties, Alex Brill Commission Inc.; Former Trustee of Resident Fellow Teacher Retirement System American Enterprise Tom Daschle of Texas Institute Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader (D-SD) Jared Bernstein Jeffrey R. Brown Economist Dean, Gies College of James H. Douglas Business Former Governor (R-VT) Andrew Biggs University of Illinois Resident Scholar David Dreier American Enterprise Sheila Burke Former U.S. Representative Institute Adjunct Lecturer in Public (R-CA) Policy Jeff Bingaman Harvard Kennedy School Karen Dynan Former U.S. Senator (D-NM) Professor of Practice, Leonard Burman Economics Department Robert L. Bixby Institute Fellow Harvard University Executive Director Urban Institute The Concord Coalition Janice Eberly Stuart M. Butler Former Assistant Secretary of Rudy Boschwitz Senior Fellow the Treasury for Economic Former U.S. Senator (R-MN); The Brookings Institution Policy; James R. and Helen D. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russell Professor of Finance, the UN Human Rights James C. Capretta Kellogg School of Commission Former Associate Director Management, Northwestern Office of Management and University Barry Bosworth Budget Senior Fellow Doug Elmendorf The Brookings Institution Kent Conrad Former Director Former U.S. Senator (D-ND) Congressional Budget Office Vic Fazio Teresa Ghilarducci Robert Greenstein Former U.S. Representative Bernard L. and Irene President (D-CA) Schwartz Professor of Center on Budget and Policy Economics; Director, Priorities Jason Fichtner Schwartz Center for Fellow Economic Policy Analysis, Judd Gregg Bipartisan Policy Center The New School Former U.S. Senator and Governor (R-NH) Howard Fluhr Paul B. Ginsburg Chairman Emeritus Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Keith Hall The Segal Group Health Policy Studies Former Director, The Brookings Institution Congressional Budget Office; Marty Ford Professor of Practice, Senior Advisor Dan Glickman McCourt School of Public The Arc of the United States Former U.S. Secretary of Policy, Georgetown Agriculture and University Gail D. Fosler Representative (D-KS) President Seth Hanlon The GailFosler Group LLC Jagadeesh Gokhale Senior Fellow Member of the Social Center for American Progress Joel Friedman Security Advisory Board; Director of Special Projects, Vice President for Federal Ron Haskins Penn Wharton Budget Model Fiscal Policy Senior Fellow Center on Budget and Policy The Brookings Institution Priorities Marc Goldwein Senior Vice President Kevin Hassett Bill Frist Committee for a Responsible Former Chair Federal Budget Former U.S. Senate Majority Council of Economic Leader (R-TN) Advisers Joshua Gotbaum William G. Gale Guest Scholar, Economic James J. Hearn Studies Co-Director Former Deputy Staff Director, The Brookings Institution Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Senate Budget Committee; Center Fellow, National Academy of Gordon Gray Public Administration William A. Galston Director of Fiscal Policy American Action Forum Senior Fellow C. Robert Henrikson The Brookings Institution Former Chairman and CEO Metlife G. William Hoagland Michael O. Leavitt George Miller Senior Vice President Chairman Former U.S. Representative Bipartisan Policy Center Leavitt Partners, LLC (D-CA) Douglas Holtz-Eakin Jacob J. Lew Joe Minarik Former Director, Former U.S. Secretary of Former Associate Director for Congressional Budget Office; Treasury Economic Policy President, American Action Office of Management and Forum Trent Lott Budget Former U.S. Senate Majority Glenn Hubbard Leader (R-MS) Olivia S. Mitchell Former Chair Economist Council of Economic Maya MacGuineas Advisers President Marilyn Moon Committee for a Responsible Former Public Trustee of Peter Kemper Federal Budget Social Security and Medicare Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Brigitte Madrian Monique Morrissey Office of the Assistant Dean, Marriott School of Economist Secretary for Planning and Business Economic Policy Institute Evaluation, Department of Brigham Young University Health and Human Services Alicia H. Munnell Donald B. Marron Director Jack Kingston Former Acting Director, Center for Retirement Former U.S. Representative Congressional Budget Office; Research at Boston College (R-GA) Institute Fellow, Urban Institute Paul H. O'Neill Charles Kolb Former U.S. Secretary of Former President Ted McCann Treasury Committee for Economic Vice President Development American Idea Foundation John Palmer University Professor and Jim Kolbe Tom McInerney Dean Emeritus, Maxwell Former U.S. Representative President & CEO School of Citizenship and (R-AZ) Genworth Financial Public Affairs Syracuse University Judith R. Lave Buck McKeon Professor Emerita of Health Former U.S. Representative Warren Payne Economics (R-CA) Senior Policy Advisor University of Pittsburgh Mayer Brown Robert Reischauer Dallas Salisbury Sita N. Slavov Former Director, Former President and CEO Professor of Public Policy Congressional Budget Office; Employee Benefit Research George Mason University Former Public Trustee of the Institute Social Security and Medicare Jack Smalligan Trust Funds Sylvester Schieber Senior Policy Fellow, Income Former Chair of the Social and Benefits Policy Center Rudolph G. Penner Security Advisory Board Urban Institute Former Director Congressional Budget Office Allyson Y. Schwartz Karen Smith Former U.S. Representative Senior Policy Fellow, Income Tim Penny (D-PA); President and CEO, and Benefits Policy Center Former U.S. Representative Better Medicare Alliance Urban Institute (D-MN) Kathleen Sebelius Olympia Snowe Debra Perry Former U.S. Secretary of Former U.S. Senator (R-ME) Non-Executive Director Health and Human Services; Genworth Financial Former Governor (D-KS) Eugene Steuerle Economist Tom Petri Louise Sheiner Former U.S. Representative Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow John Tierney (R-WI) in Economic Studies and Former U.S. Representative Policy Director for the (D-MA) Brian Riedl Hutchins Center on Fiscal Senior Fellow and Monetary Policy Rebecca Vallas Manhattan Institute The Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Center for American Progress Kathleen Romig Alan Simpson Senior Policy Analyst Former U.S. Senator (R-WY); Paul Van de Water Center on Budget and Policy Co-chair of the National Senior Fellow Priorities Commission on Fiscal Center on Budget and Policy Responsibility and Reform Priorities Alice F. Rosenblatt Former MedPAC member Andy Slavitt David M. Walker Former Acting Administrator Former Public Trustee of Avik Roy Centers for Medicare and Social Security and Medicare; President Medicaid Services Former U.S. Comptroller The Foundation for Research General on Equal Opportunity Mark A. Weinberger Former Member of the Social Security Advisory Board; Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy Christian Weller Senior Fellow Center for American Progress John Weston Honorary Chairman Automatic Data Processing Inc. Gail Wilensky Former Administrator Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Larry Zimpleman Former Chairman, President and CEO Principal Financial Group Note: Institutions of signatories are included only for purposes of identification. .