RETIREES FIRST Act

This bill, known as the "RETIREES FIRST Act," aims to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to significantly increase the income thresholds for the taxation of Social Security benefits. Its primary purpose is to reduce the federal income tax burden on retirees by allowing more of their Social Security benefits to remain untaxed. The legislation proposes new base amounts of $34,000 for individual filers and $68,000 for those filing jointly , above which a portion of Social Security benefits becomes taxable, with these amounts subject to annual inflation adjustments starting after 2025. To ensure the financial stability of the Social Security and Railroad Retirement trust funds, the bill mandates that the Treasury appropriate funds to cover any reduction in transfers caused by these tax changes, thereby holding the trust funds harmless. The legislation also establishes a mechanism to offset the cost of these appropriations by rescinding an equivalent amount from non-security discretionary appropriations across the federal government, starting in fiscal year 2027. This rescission will be applied pro rata from regular appropriation acts, excluding those designated for security purposes, with the Office of Management and Budget required to publish annual reports detailing these actions.