Thompson to make rounds in district in next 2 days

Rep. Mike Thompson, Benicia's representative in the U.S. House, will be in Vallejo tomorrow to discuss the newly enacted tax bill and its potential impact on seniors. (File photo)

 Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Benicia in the U.S. House of Representatives, was in Washington, D.C. this weekend as the country was in the midst of a government shutdown that ended on Monday, but he is back in the Bay Area. The Democratic congressman is going to have a busy schedule in the next two days as he travels to cities throughout his district to meet with constituents. 
   First, Thompson will be in Santa Rosa today for a town hall meeting, which is open to all residents in California’s 5th District. The meeting will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, located at 1351 Maple Ave. 
   Thompson has two events on Thursday. The first is a Coffee with Our Congressman event for Pinole residents to meet with Thompson and learn about services available in the area through Thompson’s local office. This event will be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Pinole Senior Center, located at 2500 Charles Ave. After that, the congressman is off to Vallejo from 3 to 4:30 p.m. to host a town tax hall for seniors. The event, open to all constituents of California’s 5th District, will discuss how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act-- passed by both houses of Congress in late 2017-- will impact senior citizens. The meeting will be held at the Florence Douglas Senior Center, located at 333 Amador St.
   For more information on any of these events, contact Thompson’s Vallejo office at 645-1888.

Rep. Mike Thompson to speak on Social Security bill today at Benicia Senior Center

(Originally published in the 3/30/16 edition)

    U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) will be hosting a town 

hall meeting today at the Benicia Senior Center today to discuss the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 1391), which he was one of the original co-sponsors of. The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) will also be speaking.  

   H.R. 1391 was introduced to the House on March 17, 2015 and aims to provide an increase in benefits to current and future Social Security beneficiaries and cut taxes for its recipients. It also would amend Title II of the Social Security Act to increase the primary insurance amount formula factor from 90 to 93 percent of all beneficiaries, revise how cost-of-living adjustments are calculated using the Consumer Price Index and increase the minimum primary insurance amount for lifetime low earners based on years in the workforce. It would also raise the gross income threshold for the taxation of Social Security benefits from $25,000 to $50,000 for single taxpayers and from $32,000 to $100,000 for married taxpayers who file joint returns.

   Thompson, who represents Benicia in the House, will be speaking alongside Larson on the progress of the bill in Congress. Afterwards, they will take questions from attendees. Elizabeth Charles, the operations supervisor of the Social Security Administration's Vallejo office, will also be on hand to answer questions.

   The town hall meeting will take place 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. today at the Benicia Senior Center, located at 187 East L St. For more information, call the center at (707) 745-1202.