Why Do We Have a Social Security Trustees’ Report? What’s New in 2007?

April 25, 2007

A Briefing for Congressional Staff

BIOS:

Stephen C. Goss is Chief Actuary at the Social Security Administration (SSA). He has been with SSA since 1973. Mr. Goss has been a staff participant representing the Office of the Actuary at the President’s Commission on Pension Policy, the 1979, 1991, and 1995 Advisory Councils, the National Commission on Social Security, and the National Commission on Social Security Reform. He has presented papers at the Society of Actuaries, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, National Conference on Private Long-Term Care Insurance, the American Academy of Actuaries, the Pension Research Council, the Gerontological Society of America and the Atlantic Economic Society. He is a member of the Society of Actuaries and the American Academy of Actuaries. He served on the National Academy of Social Insurance study panels on Evaluating Issues in Privatizing Social Security and Uncharted Waters: Paying Benefits from Individual Accounts in Federal Retirement Policy. He received the 2004 Robert M. Ball Award for outstanding achievements in social insurance. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1990, Mr. Goss received his M.S. in mathematics from the University of Virginia.

Henry J. Aaron is a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at The Brookings Institution, which he directed from 1990 to 1996. Mr. Aaron was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences (1996), Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977–78), and Chair of the Advisory Council on Social Security (1979). Mr. Aaron is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous publications including, Can We Say No? The Challenge of Health Care Rationing (with Melissa Cox and William B. Schwartz), Serious and Unstable Condition: Financing America’s Health Care and Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate (with Robert D. Reischauer). He is a member of the Boards of Directors of Abt Associates and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was president of the Association of Public Policy and Management and vice president of the American Economic Association. Mr. Aaron served as chair of the Academy’s First Annual Conference, “Social Security and the Budget,” in 1988, and will receive the 2007 Robert M. Ball Award for outstanding achievements in social insurance in June 2007. A founding member of NASI’s Board of Directors, Mr. Aaron received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Janice M. Gregory retired in December 2006 as Senior Vice President for the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), where she directed legislative affairs from 1984 through 2006. From 1979 through 1983, she coordinated activities of the Subcommittee on Social Security for its Chairman, the Honorable J.J. Pickle of Texas. She was awarded the Social Security Administration Commissioner’s Citation in 1984. Ms. Gregory served as a co-chair for the Academy’s 12th Annual conference, “Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce” in January 2000, and completed two terms as NASI’s Vice President in May 2005. She is a contributing author to Prospects for Social Security Reform and Checks and Balances in Social Security, and is principal author of The Vital Connection: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Security Reform on Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans and Getting the Job Done: A White Paper on Emerging Pension Issues. In 2003, she was named one of the one hundred most influential people in finance by Treasury and Risk Management magazine. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Ms. Gregory holds a master of science in organization development from American University.

Mark J. Warshawsky is Director of Retirement Research at Watson Wyatt and a member of the Social Security Advisory Board. Prior to this, he served as the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he had also been the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Microeconomic Analysis. Previously, Mr. Warshawsky was the Director of Research at TIAA-CREF Institute, where he also served as Director of Strategic Research and Manager of Pension and Economic Research. Prior to these positions, Mr. Warshawsky was Senior Economist on the staff of the Assistant Commissioner for Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service. Prior to that, Mr. Warshawsky was Senior Economist in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board in the Capital Markets and Fiscal Analysis sections. He has authored or co-authored over 55 published contributions to literature on pensions and retirement, insurance products, corporate finance, macroeconomics, securities markets and financial institutions, retiree health benefits, and health expenditures. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2000, Mr. Warshawsky received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.