*Please Note: The livestream will begin on this page at the time of the event.

October 2022 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—a critical but often overlooked component of America’s Social Security system. Signed into law in 1972, SSI was established to ensure that disabled people and older adults in the United States would no longer have to subsist on below-poverty incomes. But SSI’s fiftieth anniversary is bittersweet, since this critical program has been forgotten by American policymakers for nearly as long as it’s been around.

Join The Century Foundation’s Disability Economic Justice Collaborative and friends on Thursday, October 20, from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM ET for a virtual event commemorating SSI’s fiftieth anniversary and looking at the road ahead to reform. The event will uplift the human consequences of decades of federal neglect of the program, as well as growing bipartisan momentum for finally bringing SSI into the twenty-first century, starting with updating the program’s long-outdated asset limits. 

The event will feature elected officials, experts, current and former SSI beneficiaries, and a broad array of stakeholders discussing #SSIat50 and the road ahead to #UpdateSSI. Live CART and ASL interpretation will be provided.

Featured remarks:

  • Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair, Senate Finance Committee 
  • Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chair, Senate Finance Social Security Subcommittee 
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), chair, Senate Finance Committee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth
  • Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), chair, Ways and Means Worker and Family Support Subcommittee
  • Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
  • Steve Grammer, SSI beneficiary
  • Patrice Jetter, SSI beneficiary
  • Maria Town, president, American Association of People with Disabilities
  • Jonathan Stein, of counsel, Community Legal Services
  • Bill Arnone, CEO, National Academy of Social Insurance

Panel Discussions: SSI at 50 and the road to reform:

  • Tracey Gronniger, directing attorney for economic justice, Justice in Aging
  • Mia Ives-Rublee, director, Center for American Progress, Disability Justice Initiative, and former SSI beneficiary
  • Tom Nicholls, government affairs director, AARP
  • Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
  • Will Raderman, employment policy analyst, Niskanen Center
  • Nan Gibson, executive director, JP Morgan Chase Policy Center
  • Kristen Dama, SSI unit managing attorney, Community Legal Services
  • Moderator: Rebecca Vallas, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and co-director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative