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TSCL Supports New Legislation.President Obama's executive actions on immigration would have provided temporary work authorization to more than 4 million undocumented immigrants and with that comes controversial access to Social Security and Medicare, the Congressional Budget Office has said. That access is particularly controversial among older voters, according to surveys by TSCL..case feels just as crummy..Heating and cooling: According to TSCL's Annual Survey of senior costs, residential fuel oil has been the fastest rising expense for more than a decade. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a 250-gallon delivery of home heating oil this season may cost more than With the average monthly Social Security payment around ,100, that's a cost few seniors can afford and still have something left over for groceries. Take time to survey suppliers in your area and compare costs. Do ask for a senior citizen discount and learn the supplier's payment options. Financing your heating fuel through the supplier may give you smaller, more manageable payments, but you will pay financing fees and interest. With interest so low on savings, it sometimes makes sense to pay in full when you can to save financing charges..This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Adam Smith signed on to the Social Security 2100 Act, bringing the total up to 16The bill, which was introduced just over a month ago, has more support in Congress than any other comprehensive Social Security reform bill to date..Second, Concentrating on High-value Alzheimer's Needs to Get to an End Act of 2018 ​ gained one new cosponsor this week in Senator Chris Van Hollen. The cosponsor total is now up to four. If adopted, S. 2387 would direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to create programs that would promote early identification of Alzheimer's disease, improve support for family caregivers, and provide continuous care for those battling many forms of dementia..Unrealistic Cost-of-Living-Adjustments : COLAs are already inadequate: Seniors have lost almost one-third of their buying power since 2000, according to a recent TSCL study. In that period, COLAs increased just 31 percent, while typical senior expenses jumped 73 percent, more than twice as fast. There is talk of using a "chained" CPI to calculate COLAs. But the spending patterns assumed by the "chained" CPI don't apply as well to seniors, who spend a larger percentage of their income on necessities that aren't as conducive to substitution. Billed as a mere "technical correction," a TSCL analysis shows that using a "chained" CPI to calculate COLAs would in fact slash payments by more than ,000 over a 25-year retirement. Read more here and here..But so far Members of Congress haven't received a paycheck. Eric Pianin, a journalist who covers the federal budget for The Fiscal Times, perhaps expressed it best as a "brilliant budget tactic that backfired." The House last March passed a new budget along party lines that would achieve a surplus within ten years, mainly through deep spending cuts and reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements. Earlier this spring the Senate took up the challenge and passed a .6 trillion budget that has greatly different priorities for spending and taxes than the budget passed by the House. But neither Senate nor House negotiators have met in conference where the two chambers would negotiate differences and produce a compromise budget agreement..The Social Security Fairness Act, if signed into law, would amend the Social Security Act by repealing the government pension offset and the windfall elimination provision. TSCL believes that these two provisions unfairly reduce the earned Social Security benefits of millions of teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other state or local government employees each year. We were pleased to see support grow for the Social Security Fairness Act this week.