B. SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENTS SINCE THE 2015 REPORT Since the Trustees submitted the 2015 report to Congress, one law has been enacted that is expected to have notable effects on the OASDI program. On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law Public Law 114-74, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Several sections of the law directly affect the actuarial status of the Social Security program: • Section 811. Expansion of cooperative disability investigations (CDI) units. This section requires the establishment of CDI units to cover each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa by 2022. The additional units established under this provision would roughly double CDI capacity and will enhance the Social Security Administration's (SSA) efforts to reduce fraud and overpayments. • Section 824. Use of electronic payroll data to improve program administration. Access to more timely data on earnings from commercial databases will allow SSA to reduce improper payments. • Section 831. Closure of unintended loopholes. This provision eliminates (1) the ability to receive only a retired-worker benefit or an aged-spouse benefit when eligible for both, for those attaining age 62 in 2016 and later, and (2) the ability of a family member other than a divorced spouse to receive a benefit based on the earnings of a worker with a voluntarily suspended benefit, for voluntary suspensions requested after April 29, 2016. This provision is expected to have negligible net cost effect through 2025, with increasing net cost reductions thereafter. • Section 832. Requirement for medical review. This section requires that the medical portion of the case review and any applicable residual functional capacity assessment for an initial disability determination be completed by an appropriate physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist. This provision is projected to reduce DI program cost. • Section 833. Reallocation of payroll tax rates. For earnings in calendar years 2016 through 2018, this section increases from 1.80 percent to 2.37 percent the portion of the total 12.40 percent OASDI payroll tax that is directed to the DI Trust Fund. There is a corresponding decrease in the portion of the tax rate directed to the OASI Trust Fund. This reallocation of the payroll tax rates is projected to extend the date for DI reserve depletion by about 6 years. • Section 834. Access to financial information for waivers and adjustments of recovery. This provision provides for access to information that would allow SSA to better determine an individual's ability to repay any past overpayment. • Section 842. Elimination of quinquennial determinations relating to wage credits for military service prior to 1957. This provision eliminates the requirement that the Commissioner make quinquennial determinations for pre-1957 military service wage credits after the 2010 determination. In total, this law is expected to have a small but significant net positive financial impact over both the short-range and long-range projection periods. In addition, it significantly improves the status of the DI Trust Fund in the short term, largely due to a temporary tax rate reallocation from the OASI Trust Fund to the DI Trust Fund. In addition to the change in law, estimates in this report reflect an assumed delay in implementation of portions of the President's 2014 executive actions on immigration. Specifically, the courts have held up implementation of the provision of legal work and residence status for certain individuals who entered the country as children (deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA) and the provision for similar status for certain parents of children born in the U.S. or otherwise living in the country legally (deferred action for parents of Americans, or DAPA). As of the time this report was drafted, the Administration is pursuing remedy through the Supreme Court. Last year's report assumed that these actions would become effective late in 2015, with individuals gaining authorization starting around the beginning of 2016. This report assumes that these actions will be implemented one year later, with authorizations beginning at the start of 2017. This assumed delay in implementation has a negligible effect on the financial status of the OASDI program. Sections IV.A.4 and IV.B.6 of this report provide further description of the magnitude of the effects of these changes on the financial status of the OASDI program.
