Dear Senators [LAST NAMES] and Representative [LAST NAME]:

I write as your constituent to demand that Congress immediately reject every proposal, budget instruction, reconciliation instruction, continuing resolution, appropriations rider, or administrative change that would reduce Supplemental Security Income under Title XVI of the Social Security Act.

SSI is the federal cash floor for aged, blind, and disabled people with little or no income and very limited resources. A cut to the federal benefit rate, a freeze that fails to keep pace with the cost of living, a tighter resource limit, a narrower definition of disability, a reduced state supplementation, or a new offset that lowers the check is a direct reduction in food, rent, medicine, and utilities for people who cannot replace that income.

I instruct you, as my elected representative, to do the following without delay:

• Draft and introduce, within 14 days of receipt of this letter, an emergency bill titled the SSI Protection Emergency Act.
• The bill shall prohibit, for not less than five years, any reduction in the SSI federal benefit rate; any reduction in the annual cost-of-living adjustment applied to that rate; any reduction of the resource limits below the levels in effect on the date of enactment; any narrowing of categorical eligibility for aged, blind, or disabled individuals; and any new income or in-kind offset that reduces the monthly payment below the amount payable under current law.
• Move that bill to committee markup and to the floor of both chambers on an emergency schedule, and vote for final passage.
• Oppose, and vote against, any amendment, rule, budget resolution, reconciliation bill, or appropriations measure that cuts SSI spending by reducing benefits or eligibility.
• Reply to me in writing within 15 days stating whether you will sponsor or cosponsor the emergency bill and how you will vote on any SSI reduction.

SSI is not a discretionary courtesy. It is the program Congress created for people whose age or disability and lack of resources leave them unable to meet basic needs. Reducing it shifts the cost onto emergency rooms, shelters, and local taxpayers, and it does so to the people least able to absorb it.

I expect an immediate public commitment and a recorded vote. Silence or delay will be treated as opposition to protecting SSI.

Call script (about 60 seconds)

Mail to the Capitol is screened and can take one to two weeks. Fax the Senate Finance copy to (202) 228-0554 and call every office the same day you send the letter. Keep a copy and the date.