It was 70 years ago this month that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, marking the creation of the most successful government program in our nation’s history.

Social Security has always played a vital role in the financial security of millions of American workers, and we must ensure that this program continues to provide benefits for people, like my mother, who currently receives Social Security and for future generations of Americans.

Social Security has grown to impact the lives of nearly every American worker. Social Security’s impact is far reaching, and our country would not be where it is today without the program. According to the Social Security Administration, Social Security is a major source of income for 66 percent of the elderly population, and it is the only source of income for 22 percent of this population.

While Social Security’s finances have remained stable for the last several decades, large financial hurdles loom in its future. The current Social Security system relies on the taxes of today’s workers to pay the benefits for today’s retirees. According to the 2005 Social Security Trustees’ Report, beginning in 2017, there will not be enough money coming into the system to pay full benefits, and by 2041, the trust funds are projected to exhaust.

Further, the rapidly declining worker to retiree ratio, coupled with other demographic changes such as longer life expectancies and shifts in birth rates will only continue to disrupt the current system, making it extremely difficult if not impossible for the government to pay the benefits promised to younger workers.

In 1950, 16 workers paid into Social Security to support one beneficiary. Today, there are only about three workers for every retiree, and when workers entering the work force today retire, there will be only two. If we continue to wait until this problem becomes a crisis we will be forced to resort to drastic measures by either significantly raising the payroll tax or by dramatically cutting promised benefits.

Congress should not wait until there is an immediate crisis to strengthen the program and we should not pass this problem on to our children and grandchildren. Right now, Congress has the opportunity to debate and discuss the best way to strengthen Social Security for future generations. And while there are a number of options on the table, I am committed to doing what we can to strengthening this important program to ensure that future generations of hardworking Americans receive the benefits they have earned and deserve.