Weber Times

Appearing as a guest on the Breaking Battlegrounds podcast July 2, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah)  talked about the future of Social Security and the efforts underway to ensure its efficacy and future viability.

“We took the best first step last session of Congress to pass the Secure 2.0 Bill,” Moore said. “Secure 2.0 will allow for younger workers to have an extra five or so years saving for retirement if you are paying down your student loan.”

Instead of young students often having to choose between paying towards their retirement or paying off student loans for the first few years of their professional career, the Secure 2.0 Bill allows their company to be contributing to their 401K without matching contributions from the worker, if that employee is paying down their student loans.

“So we're going to start having people rate save for retirement much earlier,” Moore said. "It's the right step. It had over 400 votes in Congress, in the House, to pass, very bipartisan, it's productive. We have to create other incentives… to means test Social Security going forward. So there's all sorts of productive ways we can be doing this without just saying we need to tax more."

Secure 2.0, also called Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022, or HR2954, was first introduced to the House in May of 2021. It passed in March of 2022 with a massive majority vote, 414-5 votes in favor of the bill. Moore was one of over 100 cosponsors of the Bill.

Moore is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

“The Committee on Ways and Means is the oldest committee of the United States Congress, and is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives,” according to the committee website. “Revenue-related aspects of the Social Security system, Medicare, and social services programs have come within Ways and Means’ purview in the 20th century.”

Moore is a native of Utah, from Ogden, and worked in business and foreign service before joining Congress in 2021, where he had a hugely successful first term. He also serves on the House Budget Committee, advocates for the Armed Forces, and fights for Utah’s values in the national government.