WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senators Dick Durbin and Bill Cassidy have introduced a bill to extend Social Security solvency by creating a fast-track process for a bipartisan advisory board to draft 50-year solvency legislation. The proposal comes as Social Security beneficiaries face a projected 22% cut in benefits starting in six years.

The bill would be referred to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee for debate and potential amendment. If the committees do not amend the bill, the original draft would be placed on the Senate and House calendars for consideration with final votes after 100 hours of debate. Passage of the Durbin-Cassidy bill would require a three-fifths vote in the Senate and a simple majority in the House.

AARP has opposed the Durbin-Cassidy bill, stating the effort amounts to “fast-tracking” Social Security changes through a process that limits amendments and sets arbitrary procedural deadlines. Senator Bill Cassidy said in a floor speech, “For some people, the time to do Social is never. Don’t disturb Congress. They don’t want to take a tough vote. Even if that vote only sets up a process.”

Cassidy also noted the long timeline of previous efforts. “We’ve been at this six years, eight years. It’s incredible how long I’ve been at it. But Durbin came up to me and he goes, ’Bill, I’m leaving the Senate soon. We need to take a ride at it,’” Cassidy said in a podcast interview.

Other lawmakers have proposed different approaches to funding the program. Senator Bill Cassidy and Senator Tim Kaine have proposed creating a $1.5 trillion fund invested in stocks and other higher-risk assets over 75 years to help sustain Social Security. The seed money for the Cassidy-Kaine investment fund would be financed by the Treasury Department through additional borrowing.

At the end of 75 years, the Cassidy-Kaine fund’s assets would be used to repay the Treasury for the seed money and borrowing projected at about $26.6 trillion. Cassidy projects the investment fund would earn enough to cover about two-thirds of the $26.6 trillion in borrowing.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Brendan Boyle have introduced a bill that would apply the payroll tax to income above $400,000. The Whitehouse-Boyle bill would require those making more than $400,000 to contribute more to Medicare. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Val Hoyle have sponsored a bill that would lift the payroll tax cap to cover all earnings above $250,000, including capital gains and dividends.

The Sanders-Hoyle bill would increase the tax that high earners must pay on investment gains. The Sanders-Hoyle bill would boost payments to Social Security beneficiaries by roughly $2,400 a year and increase the annual cost-of-living adjustment. The House version of the Sanders-Hoyle bill has 39 cosponsors, all Democrats.

In a recent letter to colleagues, Senator Bernie Sanders said expanding benefits and requiring the wealthiest in the United States to pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security as tens of millions of working people is “how we extend Social Security’s solvency for generations to come. That is how the Democratic Party begins to regain the trust of the American people.” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Moreno have called for lifting the cap on the Social Security payroll tax. The Social Security payroll tax currently applies to a maximum of $184,500 in income. Warren and Moreno wrote in an op-ed, “Why should a middle-class nurse pay a larger share of her paycheck than a wealthy corporate lawyer?” Eliminating the payroll tax cap would generate more than $3.2 trillion for the trust fund over the course of a decade, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.