Commodities and Services Pricing Survey, an establishment survey of businesses selling goods and services to consumers, used to provide the price data for the CPI .What We Know and What We are Still Learning .A few years later, under 2003 Medicare drug legislation, funding for private plans was significantly boosted and the program got rebranded as "Medicare Advantage." Enrollment grew steadily and rapidly ever since. But by 2009, government economists reported that the payments to the plans cost the federal government 14 percent more than the same services would have cost under traditional Medicare. .Key Social Security Bill Re-Introduced .The Social Security Expansion Act (H.R. 1114) gained one new cosponsor in Congressman Donald Payne (NJ-10), bringing the new cosponsor total up to thirty-one. If signed into law, H.R. 1114 would enhance Social Security benefits by basing COLAs on the CPI-E, increasing monthly checks by around per month, improving the Special Minimum Benefit, applying the payroll tax to income above 0,000, and applying a 6.2% tax on investment income for wealthy individuals. .TSCL would like to remind you that Members of both the House and the Senate will remain in their home states and districts until Monday, September 10th. We encourage you to contact your Members of Congress to request their support for fair cost-of-living adjustments, Notch fairness, and other issues affecting seniors. .With about 1 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Located just outside Washington, D.C., its mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League is a proud affiliate of TREA The Enlisted Association. Please visi more at or call 1-800-333-8725 for more information. .This week, three new cosponsors – Reps. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Alcee Hastings (FL-20), and Robert Scott (VA-3) – signed on to the Strengthening Social Security Act (H.R. 3118). The cosponsor total is now up to thirty-three. If signed into law, the bill would reform the Social Security program in three ways: it would adjust the benefit formula, resulting in more generous monthly benefits; it would adopt a Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, resulting in more accurate cost-of-living adjustments; and it would lift the cap on income subject to the payroll tax. TSCL enthusiastically supports the Strengthening Social Security Act since it would extend the solvency of the Trust Fund responsibly, without cutting benefits. We were pleased to see support grow for it this week, and we look forward to helping build support for it in the coming months. .Social Security Reform – Work for solutions that extend the Trust Fund's solvency and strengthen the program without enacting harmful cuts.