Today is the 80th anniversary of President Frankin Delano Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law. A message from the SSA Commissioner: Social Security 80 Years | Celebrating the Past and Building the Future:
I am thrilled to join our employees and stakeholders in celebrating Social Security’s 80th anniversary. Eighty years ago, on August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the signing of the Social Security Act into law with profound and relevant words:
Today, a hope of many years standing is in large part fulfilled…We have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
We continue to embody President Roosevelt’s vision of hope and protection for the most vulnerable members of the public. In field offices across the country, our frontline employees provide world-class service to millions each day. We provide secure online services for our customers who prefer to do business online—including the my Social Security suite of services, the Retirement Estimator, and the online retirement application.
The Faces and Facts of Disability campaign offers increased public awareness of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program through personal stories from those who benefit most from this important program.
Our Vision 2025 provides a framework to shape the future of Social Security service delivery and outlines ways we can maintain clear communication with the public. I am deeply honored to be a part of such a great organization with employees who truly embody the spirit of compassionate public service. There is nothing more rewarding or longer lasting than making a positive difference in the lives of others.
Happy 80th anniversary, Social Security!
Carolyn W. Colvin
Acting Commissioner
PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT SIGNING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT
By President Franklin D. Roosevelt
August 14, 1935
Today a hope of many years’ standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.
This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty millions of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.
We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.
I congratulate all of you ladies and gentlemen, all of you in the Congress, in the executive departments and all of you who come from private life, and I thank you for your splendid efforts in behalf of this sound, needed and patriotic legislation.
If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.
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