Some of the income tax retirees pay on their Social Security benefits is credited back to the program's trust funds, so when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut that tax it also cut that revenue, a $168.6 billion net increase in program costs from 2025 through 2034 by the chief actuary's estimate; Derrick Van Orden, whose district is Wisconsin's 3rd, cast a yes for the law on July 3, 2025, having already decided the House version with his May vote.
Van Orden's deciding April 2025 budget vote opened the room for up to $4.5 trillion in deficit-financed tax changes that the law used. In December 2024, 180,034 people in his district drew Social Security, and should the retirement trust fund run short, the 24% cut that follows would average $513 a month for Wisconsin beneficiaries, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates.
Derrick Van Orden's Votes on the Tax Changes That Drain Social Security's Trust Funds
- A Lower Tax on Benefits Strips $168.6 Billion From Social Security's Finances and Brings Its Shortfall Forward, Enacted With Van Orden's July 2025 Vote. Derrick Van Orden was a yea on July 3, 2025, as the Senate-amended H.R. 1 cleared the House 218 to 214; two months before, his yea had settled the House version's 215-to-214 vote. Proceeds of the tax on benefits flow partly to the trust funds, so trimming it raises the program's costs: Social Security's chief actuary found that "the total net increase in OASDI program cost is estimated to be $168.6 billion" over that ten-year window. Forecasters now see the retirement fund coming up short in the "fourth quarter of 2032, three months earlier than previously expected."
- Van Orden's Deciding Vote in April 2025 Adopted a Budget Plan Allowing $4.5 Trillion in Deficit-Financed Tax Changes, Paving the Way for the Benefit-Tax Cut. Van Orden's April 10, 2025 yes on H.Con.Res. 14, the budget resolution in its final form, came in a 216-to-214 vote; had he alone switched, it would have tied and failed. Its instructions let the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee produce changes that "increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000", the allowance behind the benefit-tax cut. On July 3, 2025, he voted for the final law that enacted that cut. Once the retirement program's trust fund is exhausted, retirees are "subject to an immediate 24% benefit cut upon trust fund exhaustion" unless Congress acts first, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects.
What Derrick Van Orden's Social Security Votes Mean for Wisconsin Beneficiaries
- Wisconsin's 3rd District has 180,034 Social Security beneficiaries paid from trust funds the law drains faster. The Social Security Administration's December 2024 count for Wisconsin's 3rd District is 180,034 beneficiaries, among them 141,307 retired workers and 18,762 workers on disability, part of 1,365,446 across Wisconsin. Every one of those checks is paid from the trust funds whose costs the law raised.
- An insolvency cut would take $513 a month, on average, from 1.2 million Wisconsin beneficiaries. If the retirement trust fund runs dry, the 24% across-the-board reduction that follows would lower the average Wisconsin benefit by $513 a month for 1.2 million people, 20.2% of the state, and remove $7.2 billion a year from Wisconsin's economy, equal to 1.5% of state output, in the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's calculation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Derrick Van Orden on Social Security
What is Derrick Van Orden's record on Social Security under Trump?
Derrick Van Orden's July 3, 2025 vote helped enact a cut in the tax on benefits that costs Social Security $168.6 billion through 2034 and moves the retirement fund's shortfall to late 2032. His April 2025 budget vote and his May 2025 House vote each decided the outcome. When the shortfall hits, a 24% cut would cost Wisconsin beneficiaries $513 a month on average, by one budget watchdog's projection.
When could Social Security checks in western Wisconsin be cut after Derrick Van Orden's vote?
Under the law Derrick Van Orden voted for, the retirement trust fund's projected exhaustion date is now late 2032, a quarter earlier than before the law, and when it arrives retirees face an immediate cut that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts at 24%. In Wisconsin's 3rd District that reaches the 141,307 retired workers drawing benefits as of December 2024.
Did Derrick Van Orden cast a deciding vote on the law that raised Social Security's costs?
Yes, twice: Derrick Van Orden's yes on the April 10, 2025 budget resolution, 216 to 214, and on the May 22, 2025 House version, 215 to 214, each decided the result, and he voted for final passage on July 3, 2025, when the margin was 218 to 214.
Last updated: 2026-10-27