May is Older Americans Month, and as President Biden stated in his May 3rd proclamation: “During Older Americans Month, we celebrate older Americans and the key role they play in sharing the wisdom and experience that inform today’s decisions and actions, and fostering the connection and engagement that build strong,
The Report of the National Commission on State Workmen’s Compensation Laws celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022. Workers’ Compensation (WC) practitioners and scholars are planning an event in commemoration of this fiftieth anniversary, a milestone that is particularly notable given the new issues raised regarding WC by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world grapples with three million tragic deaths due to COVID-19 – with over 566,000 deaths in the U.S. – the Academy is helping policymakers and the public understand the pandemic’s impact on our social insurance infrastructure. Here’s an update on the Academy’s COVID-19 Task Force: Deliberations of the
Walter F. (“Fritz”) Mondale, the 42nd Vice President of the U.S., passed away this week at the age of 93. He also served as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, as well as that state’s attorney general, and as Ambassador to Japan. Throughout his career, Walter Mondale had a solid record
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted both the severe inadequacy and major inequities in our country's caregiving infrastructure, including the high out-of-pocket costs of long-term services and supports (LTSS). For many families, care demands may become unmanageable, or manageable only at significant cost to family members’ health, well-being, income, and careers.
Emphasizing stakeholder voices and new partnerships The Academy’s 33rd annual policy conference, Pathways to Economic Security: Bringing All Voices to the Table, was held virtually on March 2-4, 2021. Stakeholders' perspectives led policy conversations around economic security throughout the keynotes, panel dialogues, and workshops. (While we are all stakeholders in economic security
A year ago (February 2020), I wrote a piece on the importance of values-driven social insurance. In this piece, I asked: What are the underlying values that make social insurance resonate with most Americans? Is there a normative framework through which social insurance might be viewed? Will values emerge as
With the peaceful transfer of power in the United States threatened by violence and deliberate attempts to undermine our fundamental democratic processes, the vital role of social insurance in a democratic society needs to be reinforced – especially as we continue to face an extremely divided political environment. Social Security
Among Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s many legal accomplishments was her role in successfully challenging gender discrimination in the Social Security Act.
In 1974, as a law professor at Columbia University and founder of The Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, she filed suit against Caspar Weinberger, then Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, on the basis that Social Security’s treatment of surviving spouses violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
At issue was the Social Security Act’s provision of surviving spouse benefits (Section 402(g)). In this case, the plaintiff was a widower who claimed that he should receive survivor benefits determined the same way as for widows, so that he would be able to care for their child.
Over Labor Day, I read The Vanishing American Dream, by Gene Ludwig (Disruption Books, 2020). He is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of IBM’s Promontory Financial Group and served as the Comptroller of the Currency during the Clinton Administration. He is a long-time colleague and Promontory was a sponsor of the Academy’s 2013 Ball Award.
The book relates the proceedings of an April 2019 symposium at Yale Law School in which just over two dozen thought leaders, including Academy Members Larry Summers and 2020 Ball Award recipient Jacob Hacker, offered their perspectives on “the economic realities facing middle- and lower-income Americans.”