Social Security Enhancement and Protection Act of 2025
HB3517, titled the Social Security Enhancement and Protection Act of 2025, would make a broad set of changes to Social Security benefits and payroll tax rules beginning after 2025. The bill raises the special minimum benefit for lifetime low earners, with the minimum tied to years in the workforce and including limited credit for years spent caring for a child under age 6 in the home. It also creates a new long-term eligibility increase for beneficiaries who have been receiving benefits for at least 16 years, with the increase phasing up over time and generally reaching 100 percent after 20 years of eligibility.
The bill also expands child’s insurance benefits by extending eligibility for full-time post-secondary school students up to age 26, and it updates related definitions and transition rules for students moving from secondary to post-secondary education. In addition, it changes how earnings above the Social Security contribution and benefit base are treated in benefit calculations and taxable wage/self-employment formulas, phases out the portion of wages and self-employment income subject to Social Security taxation above the wage base over several years, and adds a new bend point for earnings above the contribution and benefit base in the benefit formula. Finally, it increases the Social Security payroll tax rate for employees, employers, and self-employed workers beginning in 2026, and it provides that benefit increases under the bill will not count as income or resources for means-tested federal, state, or local programs.
The bill would amend Title II of the Social Security Act and several provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. It would alter benefit calculations under sections 202, 209, 211, 215, and 223 of the Social Security Act, expand eligibility for child’s benefits, create new benefit enhancements for low earners and long-term beneficiaries, and revise the treatment of earnings above the contribution and benefit base. It would also increase payroll tax rates under sections 3101, 3111, and 1401 of the Internal Revenue Code, while phasing down the share of wages and self-employment income above the wage base that is subject to Social Security taxation over time. The bill would affect workers, employers, self-employed individuals, current and future Social Security beneficiaries, and recipients of means-tested programs that use income or resource tests.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes in the provided materials, the measure appears to be framed as a Social Security expansion and protection proposal rather than a narrowly targeted technical fix. Its structure suggests support for increasing benefits for low earners, long-term beneficiaries, and older student dependents, while also raising payroll taxes to help finance the changes. Because no vote history or transcript is provided, there is no documented committee sentiment in the supplied record beyond the bill’s introduction and referral to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
The most likely points of contention are the bill’s financing and distributional effects. Supporters would likely emphasize the higher minimum benefit, the long-term eligibility increase, and the extension of child’s benefits to post-secondary students through age 26, while critics may focus on the increased employee, employer, and self-employment tax rates and the broader changes to taxation of earnings above the wage base. Another possible area of dispute is the bill’s treatment of benefits for means-tested programs, since it would exclude the new benefit increases from income/resource calculations, which could affect eligibility and program costs. No specific objections or amendments are recorded in the provided committee materials.