In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas largely accurate that John Sununu wanted to privatize Social Security

John E. Sununu hasn’t held public office since the aughts. But New Hampshire politics has a long memory.

“John Sununu led efforts to privatize Social Security,” Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas said of his Republican U.S. Senate competitor in a Sept. 15 press release. He made similar claims in his Sept. 8 primary victory speech, saying Sununu “wrote the plan to privatize Social Security,” and  in an August X post, calling Sununu “a lead architect” of Social Security privatization plans.

Sununu and Pappas are running for the open seat of the retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Analysts consider the contest competitive. 

A look back at Sununu’s record shows that Pappas’ assertion is largely accurate. Although Sununu hasn’t made Social Security privatization a centerpiece of his agenda this year, as a member of Congress two decades ago, he was a leading voice in the effort to change how people can access their Social Security benefits. 

A recap of the Bush-era privatization debate

In the 1990s and early 2000s, lawmakers debated whether to shift some or all of Social Security’s finances into private accounts invested in stocks or other securities. That would have been a departure from the program’s traditional structure of paying beneficiaries from payroll tax revenues held in the federal treasury.

The battle played out over several years during the presidency of George W. Bush, who backed the concept. However, Congress never fully bought into the idea, and no form of Social Security privatization was enacted.

As early as 2000, when Bill Clinton was president, Sununu, then a House member, cosponsored the Personal Lockbox Act of 2000, which would have allowed Americans to direct a portion of their Social Security benefits, plus other assets held for retirement, into personal accounts.

In 2001, Sununu joined dozens of other lawmakers, mostly Republicans, in signing an open letter to the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security that said in part, “Personal retirement accounts will transform Social Security from a government IOU into personal property and real assets that workers can own and pass along to their children.”

In 2004, as a senator, Sununu introduced the Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act. Then-Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., introduced a companion bill in the House. The measure was modeled on a 2003 proposal by well-known conservative figures, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and activists Grover Norquist and Steven Moore.

The proposal would have allowed workers under 55 years old to voluntarily allocate a portion of their payroll taxes to individual accounts invested in stocks and other securities. Neither measure advanced to a vote.

In 2005, Sununu cosponsored the Stop the Raid on Social Security Act, which would have created automatic personal accounts unless the beneficiary opted out. This bill never received a vote, either.

Also in 2005, Sununu, along with most Senate Republicans, voted against a nonbinding resolution that said Congress should reject any Social Security plan that would require deep benefit cuts or a massive debt increase.

The debate over Social Security privatization became a centerpiece of Bush’s agenda in early 2005, but the effort petered out by that summer, as critics called the plan risky for beneficiaries. 

In 2005, the New Hampshire Sunday News, the Sunday edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader, described Sununu as “a key national player in the effort to solve Social Security’s financial problems and enable participants to invest a portion of their Social Security in personal savings accounts.”

A nuance not captured by Pappas’ phrasing is that Sununu’s proposals would not have been mandatory for all Social Security beneficiaries. The plans would have been limited by age, voluntary, or a combination of the two.

Sununu explains his record on Social Security

In an Aug. 31 interview with WMUR-TV, PolitiFact’s New Hampshire partner, Sununu acknowledged his actions from two decades earlier and said the challenges have changed since then, requiring different solutions.

Sununu said his earlier legislation “gave younger workers a choice if they wanted to invest in a retirement plan, like the one members of Congress have. It maintained a guaranteed benefit for all retirees. And it made the system solvent.”

Pressed by WMUR political director Adam Sexton whether he still supported privatizing Social Security, Sununu said, “That was 20 years ago. If we had passed that bill, the system would be solvent today and most retirees would have a greater benefit.” 

A retrospective analysis in 2025 by the conservative American Enterprise Institute found that if the plan had been enacted, beneficiaries would have become better off financially.

Our ruling

Pappas said Sununu “led efforts to privatize Social Security.”

As a member of Congress two decades ago, Sununu co-sponsored several bills to enact Social Security privatization, including two introduced before the issue became a Bush administration priority in 2005. However, they would not have privatized Social Security for everyone.

The statement is accurate but needs additional information, so we rate it Mostly True.