Election 2026

Independent, source-first accountability

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Issue record

Social Security and retirement

In short

Miller-Meeks's bill would make the $6,000 seniors tax break permanent; she lists no trust fund position. Bohannan's campaign backs shoring up the trust funds and opposes cuts and privatization. Bridgford's campaign backs lifting the payroll tax cap, with no changes for retirees or people near retirement. On the record, Bohannan sat on the Iowa House panel that first backed a 2021 elder abuse bill; a later panel without her moved it, and it became law.

Campaign positions

What each campaign says.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks

Her position is on the taxation of Social Security benefits, and it is in her official newsroom rather than on her issue pages. She sponsored H.R. 7550 of the 119th Congress, the Permanent Tax Relief for Seniors Act, introduced February 12, 2026 with three cosponsors and referred to Ways and Means, which would remove the 2028 expiry from the $6,000 seniors deduction that the Working Families Tax Cuts created; her release that day quotes her saying "My bill ensures those savings don’t expire, because seniors have earned the right to keep more of what they worked their whole lives for." Her February 9, 2026 release carries the same subject, and a February 6 event item from Pella carries the deduction without naming Social Security. On the solvency of the trust funds this desk finds no position: the words solvency and trust fund appear on none of her seven issue pages, in none of those three releases, and in no headline or summary on her official press-release index from December 4, 2024 to September 3, 2026.

Christina Bohannan

Her campaign says seniors have earned and depend on Social Security and Medicare and that she would shore up the trust funds to fully fund them for future generations, oppose cuts and privatisation, let Iowans buy into Medicare at any age, widen Medicare drug negotiation, and add dental, vision, hearing and family-caregiver home health coverage.

Michael Bridgford

His campaign says the 2026 Trustees Report puts depletion of the retirement fund at 2032 with an automatic cut of up to 24 percent; he would lift the payroll tax cap above $184,500, vote against changes for current retirees and anyone within ten years of retirement, slow benefit growth for the wealthiest 5 percent of future retirees, and put a legal lockbox around the trust funds.

Evidence timeline

What the record shows.

  1. official action

    Christina Bohannan: Matches stated record claim

    She sat on the House subcommittee that first backed the bill in 2021, and a later panel without her moved it in 2022 before it passed 96-0 and took effect.

    Read the full check

    Full detail

    Her campaign says she worked on a bipartisan bill at the Statehouse to prevent abuse against Iowa's seniors and helped pass it. Senate File 522 of the 89th General Assembly relates to older individuals and dependent adults and creates criminal offenses and civil actions with penalties. The Legislature's bill history names her as one of the three members of its first House subcommittee on March 10, 2021, Hite, Bohannan and Kaufmann, and records that subcommittee recommending passage 3 to 0 on March 25, 2021. The bill then stopped: the history marks the end of the 2021 actions with no committee report and no House floor vote. On February 28, 2022 the House named a second subcommittee on the same bill, Hite, Anderson and Kaufmann, which did not include her; it recommended passage 3 to 0 on March 3, 2022, the committee reported the bill on March 15 and the House passed it, as amended, 96 to 0 on March 23, 2022. The Senate had passed it 47 to 0 on March 9, 2021, and the history carries an effective date of July 1, 2022. She is not a sponsor or floor manager of it: the Legislature's sponsor-or-floor-manager list for her carries 33 other measures. Limit: She says she worked on the bill and helped pass it, and the official history shows both: a named seat on the subcommittee that first recommended it, and a bill that passed and took effect. Her seat did not carry it to the floor. The bill advanced no further in 2021, and the subcommittee that moved it in 2022, to the committee report and the floor, did not include her. She did not sponsor or floor-manage it, and the House vote was 96 to 0, so no single member's support decided it. This desk read the bill history and not the House Journal page for March 23, 2022, so her individual floor vote is not separately confirmed here.

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Sources10 source records

How we use sources

  1. H.R. 7550, Permanent Tax Relief for Seniors Acthttps://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7550

    Congress.gov · Published Feb 12, 2026 · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Sponsored by Miller-Meeks, introduced 2026-02-12 with three cosponsors, referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means, policy area Taxation. It is one of the 134 sponsored items this desk pulled for her, so her sponsorship rests on the same record as the sponsorship counts elsewhere on this page.

    official legislative record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  2. Miller-Meeks Introduces Legislation to Permanently Secure Seniors’ Social Security Tax Deductionhttps://millermeeks.house.gov/media/press-releases/miller-meeks-introduces-legislation-permanently-secure-seniors-social-security

    Office of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Published Feb 12, 2026 · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Her own quoted words on the Permanent Tax Relief for Seniors Act, which she introduced that day with Representatives Anna Paulina Luna and Gus Bilirakis. The subject is the taxation of Social Security benefits and the 2028 expiry of the $6,000 seniors deduction; the words solvency and trust fund do not appear on it.

    official office record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  3. Miller-Meeks: Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts, Seniors Get a $6,000 Social Security Tax Deductionhttps://millermeeks.house.gov/media/press-releases/miller-meeks-thanks-working-families-tax-cuts-seniors-get-6000-social-security

    Office of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Published Feb 9, 2026 · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    The second Social Security item on that index page. It sets out the $6,000 deduction and quotes her twice on seniors keeping what they earned; like the February 12 release it says nothing about solvency or the trust funds.

    official office record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  4. Press Releases index, ?page=8https://millermeeks.house.gov/media/press-releases?page=8

    Office of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    The page of that index covering February 5 to February 17, 2026. Three of its ten items are on the seniors deduction, dated February 12, February 9 and February 6, 2026; the first two carry Social Security in their headlines and summaries and the third, an event in Pella, does not use the phrase. The first draft's claim that a search of her press index for Social Security returned nothing rested on the first page of the index alone.

    official office record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  5. Press Releases indexhttps://millermeeks.house.gov/media/press-releases

    Office of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Her official newsroom, and the scope this desk should have searched for the first draft. The index is paginated with a Next link and no page numbers, ten items to a page, each item a headline, a date and an opening summary. This desk read it page by page from the newest item of September 3, 2026 back through the address ?page=20, whose oldest item is December 4, 2024, which covers the whole of this Congress. An index sweep reads headlines and summaries; where a term turned up, the release itself was opened and read.

    official office record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  6. Issues indexhttps://millermeeks.house.gov/issues

    Office of Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    The index links seven subject pages and no others: delivering results, border security, economy, health, energy, veterans and education. Cited on this desk as one part of the scope behind a position recorded as not found on her; the other parts are her official press-release index and her campaign site, because a search of the issue pages alone is not a search of what she has said.

    official office record

    For: Mariannette Miller-Meeks: campaign position

  7. Prioritieshttps://bohannanforcongress.com/priorities/

    Christina Bohannan for Congress · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Eight sections: lowering costs, restoring faith in government, health care, education, family farms and natural resources, seniors and Social Security, freedom, and a family friendly economy. Read directly from the live site; no archive was needed. The government section carries the sentence "I take no corporate PAC money.", which is the statement side of the money card on her.

    candidate statement

    For: Christina Bohannan: campaign position; Christina Bohannan: Matches stated record claim

  8. Issueshttps://bridgfordforiowa.com/Issues

    Bridgford for Iowa · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Eleven issue panels. The site is a client-rendered application: it answers a plain request with HTTP 200 but serves the same shell for every route and has no content API, so the panels were read twice, once rendered in a browser with each panel expanded and once extracted verbatim from the site's own JavaScript bundle. This is not a block and no archive was used.

    candidate statement

    For: Michael Bridgford: campaign position

  9. Senate File 522 (2021-2022), bill historyhttps://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/billHistory?billName=SF522&ga=89

    Iowa Legislature · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    Older individuals and dependent adults, creating criminal offences and civil actions with penalties. First House subcommittee named March 10, 2021 as Hite, Bohannan and Kaufmann, which recommended passage 3-0 on March 25, 2021; the history then marks the end of the 2021 actions with no committee report and no House floor vote. Second House subcommittee named February 28, 2022 as Hite, Anderson and Kaufmann, which recommended passage 3-0 on March 3, 2022; committee report recommending passage March 15, 2022; passed the Senate 47-0 on March 9, 2021 and the House, as amended, 96-0 on March 23, 2022; effective date 07/01/2022.

    official legislative record

    For: Christina Bohannan: Matches stated record claim

  10. Bills sponsored or floor managed by Christina Bohannan, 89th General Assemblyhttps://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/findLegislation/findBillBySponsorOrManager?ga=89&pid=30661

    Iowa Legislature · Reviewed Sep 13, 2026

    33 measures: 29 House files and 4 House resolutions. Five carry her as the only sponsor: House Files 634, 635, 641, 2183 and 2196. Senate File 522 is not among them.

    official legislative record

    For: Christina Bohannan: Matches stated record claim