Law Enforcement Legislative Updates Social Security Fairness Act for Law Enforcement

Social Security Fairness Act Timeline

President Signs SS Fairness Act Into Law

On Sunday, January 5, 2025, President Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), which will restore the Social Security benefits of thousands of police officers and other public servants. The law’s effective date is for the “months after December 2023,” and it should be noted that it may take some time for the Social Security Administration to implement the changes. Congratulations, and thank you for all the hard work & efforts to make this happen. 

Saturday, January 4, 2025

President Biden is set to sign legislation on Sunday, January 5th, 2025 that will extend full Social Security benefits to nearly 3 million U.S. retirees, according to supporters of the bill.

The long-awaited Social Security Fairness Act aims to repeal two federal policies that have, for decades, reduced or blocked full Social Security benefits for retired public employees, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, and teachers who also receive public pensions.

Saturday, December 21, 2024 12:30:43 AM

12/18/24 SS Fairness Act floor debate today!

12/17/24 Urge Your Senator to Support Passage of H.R. 82

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the motion to proceed with H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, as soon as December 17. This first vote is to end debate on the bill, or “cloture”, and it needs 60 votes in favor to succeed. If we are successful in getting cloture, we end any possibility of a filibuster, and it sets the bill up for two more votes: a vote to close off debate and a vote on final passage of the bill.

There are 60 co-sponsors in the Senate, and you can find the list, searchable by name, state, and party (while there are 62 listed, one is former Senator Menendez and the other is former Senator Feinstein). We need all 60 cosponsors to be with us to overcome a threatened filibuster, so we are working to shore up the support of every one of these Senators. We are also continuing to press Senators who are no cosponsors to join us to support both cloture and final passage of H.R 82.

Please join our efforts and reach out to your Senators, whether they are cosponsors or not. The contact information for the legislative directors of every Senator can be found here, with the current cosponsors highlighted in yellow. You can also find a sample letter to use in your efforts here and a one-pager on the Social Security Fairness Act here.

We ask every Senator to join us in supporting the Social Security Fairness Act and vote yes on the motion to proceed and yes on the bill’s final passage.

12/16/24 REPORTS FROM THE HILL:

Sources indicate that Senate Leadership has 61 votes pledged for the bill. Additionally, it reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, promised to put the bill up for a vote. “I am here to tell you the Senate is going to take action,” Schumer said, prompting cheers from the crowd, which included firefighters, police, postal workers, teachers, and other government employees who stood outside the Capitol.

“I got all my Democrats lined up to support it,” said Schumer, adding they need 15 Republicans.

“What’s happening to you is unfair, un-American,” Schumer said. “I will fight it all the way.”

12/14/24 Schumer says Senate will vote on Social Security changes

In America, there’s a basic promise that if you work hard all your life, play by the rules, and contribute year after year, then you deserve a secure retirement!

That’s why I am doing everything I can to pass the Social Security Fairness Act.

And the Senate GOP needs to join us. pic.twitter.com/pUdRL9eIHH

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 11, 2024

12/12/24 | Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pushing hard to pass the Social Security Fairness Act before the new Congress begins next month. He told union members at a rally that the Senate would take action, and voters would see which senators supported the legislation. Schumer has the support of all Senate Democrats and says they need 15 Republicans to join them to get the bill passed.

The bill, which has already passed the House with strong bipartisan support, aims to repeal two controversial rules: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). These rules sometimes reduce Social Security benefits for public service workers and their spouses, which supporters say is unfair. However, critics argue these rules help prevent double-dipping between pensions and Social Security.

While Schumer is optimistic, there’s a tight deadline. Congress must act by December 20 to avoid a government shutdown, and it’s unclear if this bill will be included in the expected funding package. Some conservatives are concerned about the legislation’s cost, estimated at $190 billion over the next 10 years.

A Vote By the End of the Year or Starts Over in 2025

The Social Security Fairness Act is now in the Senate’s hands. If there’s no vote on the December 20, 2024, adjournment date, it will start over in January 2025. Here’s more information:

Efforts to get the Senate to vote on a bill to expand Social Security benefits are intensifying, as the House-passed Social Security Fairness Act enjoys rare bipartisan support but has only a short window of time — less than four weeks — to be passed.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy took to social media to decry that a vote on the measure has yet to be scheduled in the chamber, with the Republican lawmaker posting on December 3 on social media that “it is unfair to penalize Americans who have taught our children, protected our streets and ran into burning buildings.”

In a speech on the Senate floor earlier in the week, Cassidy, a Republican, called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to schedule a vote on the measure. Schumer, a Democrat, and co-sponsor of the legislation, could invoke a Senate rule that would skip a committee hearing and send the bill directly to a floor vote by the full Senate.

“If Schumer brings it up, it’ll pass,” Cassidy said. Schumer’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in late November held a press conference to urge her colleagues to pass the measure, and also advocated for it on social media.

“Retired teachers & firefighters deserve access to the Social Security benefits they’ve earned. That’s why I’m working to repeal provisions that unfairly reduce Social Security benefits for public servants. Let’s get it done!,” the Democrat posted.

The last-ditch pleas come as Americans express concern about the future of the nearly 90-year-old safety net, which was enacted during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration to address economic insecurity, especially among the elderly. A new Bankrate survey found that 53% of workers expect to rely on Social Security benefits to pay their necessary expenses once they retire. Meanwhile, 73% of those polled worry that the benefits won’t be there when they retire.

“We’re guardedly optimistic,” Shannon Benton, executive director of The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, an advocacy group devoted to protecting retirement benefits, said of the current proposal. “There is so much momentum; if it doesn’t get passed now, a lot of people will lose hope.”

Decades in the making, the legislation would eliminate a provision that reduces Social Security payments to some retirees who also collect a pension from jobs that aren’t covered by the retirement program, such as state and federal workers, including teachers, police officers, and U.S. postal workers. It would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members.

Various forms of the measure have been introduced over the years, but like many legislative proposals, they have failed to get enacted.

“I’ve been working at the league 25 years, and I don’t remember ever not having a version,” said Benton.

Introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., the bill was passed by the House in a 327-75 vote late Tuesday night, after a last-ditch effort to derail it by members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus failed.

Posted on 11/13/2024

House Passes Social Security Fairness Act

On November 11, 2024, the House voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act – bipartisan legislation to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).

Currently, the WEP reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. Likewise, the GPO affects the spousal benefits of people who work as federal, state, or local government employees — including police officers, firefighters, and educators — if Social Security does not cover the job. The GPO reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension — often offsetting benefits entirely.

The WEP currently impacts approximately 2 million Social Security beneficiaries, and the GPO impacts nearly 800,000 retirees.

Posted on 11/11/24

The Social Security Fairness Act (HR 82) is scheduled to be voted on the U.S. House Floor on Tuesday, November 12, at 6:30 p.m. The bill has overwhelming support, with 330 House Co-sponsors, including 8 of Michigan’s 13 Members. They should all be urged to vote for it on Tuesday.

Michigan Co-Sponsors of HR 82

• Rep. Debbie Dingell 202/225-4071
• Rep. John James 202/225-4961
• Rep. Dan Kildee 202/225-3611
• Rep. Hillary Scholten 202/225-3831
• Rep. Elissa Slotkin 202/225-4872
• Rep. Haley Stevens 202/225-8171
• Rep. Shri Thanedar 202/225-5802
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib 202/225-5126

Posted on 11/6/2024

Members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus orchestrated an unusual play on the House floor during a rare election night, 5 p.m. pro forma session that resulted in killing, at least for now, a broadly popular bill that was set to hit the floor as soon as next week.

Reps. Garret Graves, R-La., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., had successfully rounded up the 218 signatures needed for a discharge petition to bypass GOP leaders and bring up bipartisan legislation that would repeal two long-standing provisions docking Social Security benefits for certain retirees. They were set to make their move as soon as Tuesday night by triggering a two-day clock to bring to the floor the special rule for immediate consideration of the bill.

With 330 co-sponsors, including now-Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who was one of the first to affix his name early in the 118th Congress, the passage of the measure was all but guaranteed. GOP leaders were mulling simply bringing it to the floor under suspension of the rules next week, which skips a rule vote but requires two-thirds of members present and voting to pass.

Then the Freedom Caucus, which opposes the measure’s $196 billion cost over a decade, intervened.

What happened: Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., a more or less local member from the Eastern Shore, presided over the pro forma session, which lasted all of seven minutes.

During the brief session, he recognized outgoing Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. — the former Freedom Caucus chair who lost his primary — for a unanimous consent request. Good’s request to lay the Social Security bill on the table was agreed to by unanimous consent, with no one else in the chamber to object.

The effect of laying the bill on the table in this context, under House rules, has the same effect as defeating a bill on the floor; it is dead for the time being. Since the discharge petition was actually filed on the rule for consideration, not the bill itself, the rule could still be called up for a vote under discharge procedures, which if adopted would remove the bill from the table and allow a vote.

Alternatively, a brand new, identical bill could simply be introduced — as early as this Friday’s pro forma session — and that measure put up for a vote under suspension of the rules as soon as next week.

So it’s not a permanent hold on the Social Security bill by any stretch, but the manner in which the maneuver occurred is striking.

Harris’ move to recognize Good goes against the “Speaker’s announced policies” in exercising authorities under House rules, which stipulate that such UC requests can only be made after receiving assurances that the majority and minority leadership of both the House and the relevant committees have no objection.

In fact, before Harris recognized Good, House Parliamentarian Jason Smith can be heard on the microphone saying: “The chair will not entertain the gentleman’s request. The chair cannot entertain the gentleman’s request.”

Harris and the parliamentarian appear to have had words after the House adjourned, according to congressional procedure expert Kacper Surdy — known as “ringwiss” on the social platform X — who posted an account of the exchange to his X account.

Hefty Price Tag

Even if the bill passes the House, its price tag and the limited time remaining in the session make it an uphill climb to clear the Senate, although it has more than enough backers in that chamber to overcome a filibuster.

The legislation would repeal the “windfall elimination provision” and “government pension offset,” which reduce Social Security benefits for those who spent portions of their careers in state and local government or other positions where their earnings weren’t subject to Social Security taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost $196 billion over a decade and move up the date of the Social Security trust funds’ exhaustion by six months. The bill’s backers argue six months isn’t that significant considering Congress was already going to have to intervene sometime around 2034, and that even the advertised price tag is misleading.

Rather than taxpayer dollars being wasted, the cost represents money “taken out of the hard-earned monthly Social Security checks of retired law enforcement officers, teachers, nurses, and bus drivers over the next 10 years,” which has been lobbying for the measure.

Graves, the lead GOP sponsor, is leaving Congress after redistricting resulted in his district becoming one that heavily favors Democrats. Spanberger is running for Virginia governor.

In a statement after the floor action Tuesday, Graves dismissed the Freedom Caucus move as a meaningless stunt. “Now that this new precedent has been created, I plan to seek UC to send every American a pony,” he said.

Posted on September 30, 2024

POAM Fight for Social Security Fairness Succeeds

On September 19, 2024, the discharge petition for the Social Security Fairness Act (HR82), hit the necessary 218 signatures needed to force a vote on this important bill. The bill would repeal both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) of the Social Security Act and restore the retirement security of thousands of police officers and public servants.

The WEP is a benefit formula that reduces the size of public employees’ Social Security retirement benefits if they receive a pension from a non-Social Security-covered job, and the GPO reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of their public pension. The bill would ensure that police officers receive the full benefits they earn.

Congress adjourned for a 6-week recess leading up to Election Day before the 7-day procedural waiting period was over and the bill could be called to the floor for a vote. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has pledged that he will be proud to call the bill up for a vote as soon as the House is back in session on November 12^th.

Six Members of Congress from Michigan signed the discharge petition in support of Michigan’s police officers.

Michigan Signers of HR 82 Discharge Petition

• #4: Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-3^rd)
• #42: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-11^th)
• #66: Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-7^th)
• #113: Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-13^th)
• #146: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-6^th)
• #155: Rep. John James (R-10^th)

House leadership confirms floor vote on the Social Security Fairness Act following November 5^th elections.

“Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) office confirmed plans to bring the legislation up for consideration in November after Congress returns from its October recess.”

The effort to force a vote on the Social Security bill stirs unrest in the House GOP.

A group of House Republicans is making a rare move that would force a vote on a bill to reform aspects of Social Security, stirring unrest in the conference. The bill at the heart of the push, also dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act (HR82), seeks to do away with the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), a proposal that backers on both sides of the aisle argue is long overdue. [ UPDATE: Rep. James “Backs the Blue” by signing a discharge petition. ]

The bill enjoys support from more than 100 House Republicans, and almost four dozen have cosigned the effort to use what’s known as a discharge petition to force consideration of the bill — and the strategy is rubbing some in the conference the wrong way.

“In a well-run Congress, no legislator signs a discharge petition if you’re a majority. That is a rule that is never broken,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) told The Hill. “And the fact that 47 of my colleagues signed a discharge petition shows that we have an utter lack of discipline.”

While the maneuver is not uncommon in the House, it’s rarely successful, as members must gather at least 218 signatures to force a vote on legislation.

This discharge petition, led by Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) — both of whom are not returning to the next Congress — is only the second such legislative effort that has met the threshold for sign-ons in the current congressional session.

“I’m a co-sponsor, I signed the discharge — and I was reluctant to, because I’ve never done it before when you’re in the majority,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), one of more than 300 co-sponsors. “But I was talking to my firefighters and our policemen. I know how important it is to them, so I did it.”

Graves’s office says the bill seeks to prevent those who have worked in public service — including “police officers, firefighters, educators, and federal, state, and local government employees” — from seeing their Social Security benefits “unfairly” reduced.

But critics say the bill is expensive, pointing to scoring from the Congressional Budget Office from earlier this month that estimates the measure could cost upward of $190 billion over a decade.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) called the measure a “bad direction to go” and said he would “oppose it.”

“I will support a version that I co-sponsor, which would be except $34 billion, which we ought to pay for, but it’s responsible. The one that … they’re discharging is irresponsible, and they can’t defend it, and they won’t defend it, except that they’re going to say things like, ‘We’re going to make everybody whole.’ They are not.”

Roy also took aim at others in his party over the procedural maneuver being deployed to move the legislation.

“Let me just say I chuckle a little bit at people who get a little upset that Chip voted against a rule once, and now they’re freaking running a discharge petition,” said Roy, who has gotten flak from others in his conference in the past for helping tank rule votes in an effort to push leadership to take a harder line on spending.

“Let’s go look at the list of appropriators in the list of, I don’t know, members of the Rules Committee, who are now signing a discharge petition,” Roy said.

A House Republican who supports the bill but not the discharge petition and spoke freely on condition of anonymity, also took aim specifically at Graves over the push, saying: “I think obviously people who are on their way out of here wanted to force.”

“Process matters in the House. … Generally speaking, in the majority, you don’t sign a discharge petition,” the Republican said, adding, “You want team players. People don’t view it as a team player if you sign a discharge petition. That’s why people are upset.”

The Hill has reached out to Graves’s office for comment.

Republicans say the matter was a topic of debate in a conference meeting earlier this week.

“They were debating about it. People said, ‘You shouldn’t have done it.’ Other people said, ‘This is why we did it,’” Bacon said, adding that, at some point, Graves spoke in support of the vote.

“We’re at 300-plus [co-sponsors], and it’s never been brought to the floor,” Bacon said before noting previous failed efforts to move the bill out of Congress. “So, the thought is … let’s do it, and it’s an option for us, because that’s why they have the discharge petition. But normally, the majority doesn’t do that.”

Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) office confirmed plans to bring the legislation up for consideration in November after Congress returns from its October recess.

The push comes months after Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) garnered attention when his discharge petition for a disaster tax relief bill became the first in years to amass 218 signatures. And in the instances of the discharge petitions pushed by both Steube and Graves, Democrats have been key in reaching the sign-on goal.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who backed Steube’s push, said he’s “not really concerned” that Democratic support was essential to the petition’s success. “That’s typical [of] what would happen when you’re in the majority.”

“What I think it means is that the members want a bottom-up process here. They want just a process where they have an opportunity to represent their districts. And I think if a vote dies on the floor, a vote dies on the floor, then they have the ability to tell their voters that they really did everything that they could,” Donalds said. “But the old games of Capitol Hill, where the leadership controls everything, is just not going to work for the members that are coming to Capitol Hill these days.

“I just think the members aren’t going to wait around for leadership to make a decision.”

Social Security Fairness Act Reaches a Major Milestone

Posted on September 20, 2024

U.S. Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) (D-VA-07) and Garret Graves (R-La.) (R-LA-06) announced that their discharge petition for the Social Security Fairness Act, S.82/S.597, has officially reached the 218 signatures required to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It will sit on the U.S. House Calendar for seven legislative days. After that period, Reps. Graves and Spanberger will request that the Speaker schedule it for a vote before the full U.S. House of Representatives. According to U.S. House rules, a vote will be scheduled within two legislative days. With bipartisan support and 327 cosponsors, this bill is on track to pass on the U.S. House floor. Spanberger and Graves are committed to ensuring the passage of this legislation, which will bring long-awaited fairness to millions of retired public employees.

On Thursday, before the petition reached the needed signatures, Spanberger and Graves hosted a press conference alongside representatives of retired police officers, firefighters, letter carriers, government employees, and educators across the country. Watch the video.

Discharge Petition Succeeds: SS Fairness Act Gets Vote

A group of House members from both parties succeeded Thursday in deploying a rarely executed method to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote on a bill to expand access to Social Security benefits.

Why it matters: It’s the second time this year that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has sidestepped House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) with the tool, called a discharge petition.

• In May, a discharge petition led by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) attained the necessary 218 signatures to force a House vote on legislation providing tax relief to victims of natural disasters.
• The last time a discharge petition succeeded before this year was in 2015 — nearly a decade ago.

State of play: The discharge petition, led by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.), would force a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act.

• The relatively non-controversial bill would close loopholes that deny Social Security payments to retirees who receive certain government pensions or other types of retirement benefits.
• It hit 218 signatures Thursday afternoon after Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) signed on.
• In total, 47 Republicans and 171 Democrats backed it.

What they’re saying: “It represents in this Congress the fact that, below the surface, there’s always been this bipartisan majority … that will push when things aren’t getting done,” said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).

• Landsman, one of the petition’s organizers, added that Republicans should “appreciate the fact that this is one of hundreds of bipartisan bills that would pass immediately” if it made it to the floor via this method.
• Spanberger previously told Axios that she and Graves launched the discharge petition because the bill kept falling through the legislative cracks and being overlooked by leadership.

What’s next: After seven legislative days, Graves and Spanberger will be able to request that Johnson schedule a floor vote.

• Johnson may end up simply allowing the vote.
• If he doesn’t, it will go ahead in another two legislative days—with or without his assent.
• “We will be dogged in making sure the Social Security Fairness Act passes in the U.S. House and finally gets signed into law. We must get it done,” Graves and Spanberger said in a statement.

Posted on August 27, 2024

Our Washington, D.C. Lobbyist, Dennis McGrann, provided the latest update on the Social Security Fairness Act, S.82/S.597. Read the post for more information.

Update On Social Security Fairness Act

The U.S. House sponsors of the Social Security Fairness Act (HR 82) announced plans to force a House “Floor” vote on the bill, called a “discharge petition” in September; read the official press release regarding this update.

A discharge petition needs 218 House Members’ signatures to successfully move a bill to the House floor for a vote. The goal is to garner the 218 signatures as soon as possible once Congress returns and have a vote on the bill in September before Congress adjourns again in October for the elections. H.R. 82 currently has 325 bipartisan cosponsors and the Senate companion, S. 597, has 62 cosponsors.

The Social Security Fairness Act has the support necessary to pass Congress by a vast majority; the goal now is to get the House sponsors and others to sign the “discharge petition” to force Leaders to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. Michigan bill sponsors Senators Peters and Stabenow, and House sponsors are Reps Dingell, James, Kildee, Scholten, Slotkin, Stevens, Thanedar, and Tlaib.

As you recall the bill (HR82 // S62) would eliminate both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), two provisions of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of Americans who have devoted much of their careers to public service — including federal employees, police officers, firefighters, and educators.

Posted on July 18, 2024

This legislation would restore full Social Security benefits for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other public servants. The legislation would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) from the Social Security Act. Currently, public service employees – such as police officers, teachers, and firefighters – are unable to receive earned Social Security benefits if they are also receiving other forms of retirement benefits, such as a pension. Both bills are some of the most popular in Congress, with 323 co-sponsors in the House and 60 in the U.S. Senate. Both Minnesota Senators’ Klobuchar are Smith are co-sponsors and in the House Reps. Finstad, Stauber, McCollum, Craig, Phillips, Omar, and Fischbach are sponsors.

The House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on the bill earlier this year, and most significantly, the Senate Finance subcommittee recently held a field hearing in Ohio. Both committees hold jurisdiction over the legislation, and the hearings mark a significant step towards eventual enactment. Of major importance during the Senate hearing was the announcement that Committee Chairmen Ron Wyden (D-OR) was supporting the bill.

The release below is from the Senate Committee on the hearing and excerpts from Chairman Wyden’s statement. We will continue to update you, and please contact POAM if you have any questions or need additional information.

BROWN HOLDS FIELD HEARING ON RESTORING SOCIAL SECURITY FOR OHIO LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIREFIGHTERS, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS

Hearing Comes Amid New Momentum for Bill Passage; At Hearing, Brown Announced Endorsement of Crucial Senate Finance Committee Chair

COLUMBUS, OH – On June 7, 204, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, hosted a field hearing in Columbus on his bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act – legislation to restore full Social Security benefits for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other public servants. This legislation would repeal two provisions of current law that unfairly reduce the Social Security benefits that public employees earn.

At the hearing, entitled “Keeping the Promise of Social Security for Ohio’s First Responders and Public Servants,” Brown announced new support for the bill, including the crucial endorsement of Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR). The hearing featured two panels of Ohioans who shared their experiences and how their retirement security is threatened by two old, unfair provisions in the law that unfairly cut the Social Security benefits they’ve earned through years of hard work and service.

Wyden’s Hearing Statement

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Chairman Brown, for holding today’s hearing and for all the witnesses for participating. For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a bedrock program on which millions of seniors and Americans with disabilities rely. Over 65 million Americans receive Social Security benefits today, including 2.6 million children. Without these earned benefits, more than 20 million Americans would now be living in poverty, including 1 million kids. 

There is no one in the Senate who understands the importance of this program for seniors and people with disabilities better than Senator Brown. He has been leading the charge in the fight to protect and strengthen Social Security for current and future generations of Americans and battling those who want to privatize the program, raise the retirement age, or advance schemes to otherwise cut benefits.

To address the inadvertent windfall, Congress enacted the WEP and GPO provisions in an effort to ensure fair treatment among workers who worked in covered and non-covered employment. However, rather than taking into account workers’ covered and non-covered earnings when calculating the Social Security benefit amount, the WEP and GPO are a “one-size-hits-all” reduction, slashing Social Security benefits by up to 60 percent. These Americans chose a life of service; we should not be unfairly penalizing them.

I am proud to announce that I will be supporting Senator Brown’s legislation, the Social Security Fairness Act, and am committed to working with Senator Brown and colleagues to address this issue while protecting Social Security’s finances. 

View the Legislative Report