“It’s all going
to be moving very fast,” one Senate Republican
leadership aide told Roll Call.
President Bush’s campaign to convince the public
to support his Social Security overhaul has taken
slightly longer than anticipated, considering that
the original plan was to spend the first quarter of
this year — January through March — on
the “problem-definition and senior reassurance”
campaign, the Senate Republican leadership aide said.
But Bush has only recently passed the midway point
on his “60 Stops in 60 Days” Social Security
tour.
By May, though, the president is likely to begin
the second phase of his effort, sending Congressional
leaders more specific details of his vision of how
to create private investment accounts under Social
Security, how he would like to pay for any transition
costs and how to keep the program solvent beyond 2041,
said a senior Bush administration official.
During the summer, Congress is also supposed to begin
crafting legislation to have a bill passed by both
chambers before Members leave for their annual August
recess, the aide said. However, Republican leaders
would be satisfied if Senate Finance Chairman Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa) has at least unveiled a bill by
the end of July, the aide added.
Still, the timeline assumes that the “final
floor fight” on a Social Security overhaul would
occur during the fall and winter, in time to have
it signed by the president by the end of the year,
the aide added.
