Efforts to get the Senate to pass a bill to expand Social Security benefits are intensifying, with passage by the House of Representatives. Social Security Fairness Act enjoys a rarity bipartisan support but there is only a short time left – six weeks – to pass.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting retirement benefits. “There is so much momentum that if this law is not passed now, many people will lose hope.”

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

Various forms of measures have been introduced over the years, but like many legislative proposals, they have not been adopted.

“I’ve been in the league for 25 years and I can’t remember not having a release,” Benton said.

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

WEP has an impact on 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO almost 800,000 retirees.

What happens next with the Social Security Fairness Act?

Despite having 62 cosponsors in the Senate, the bill still needs to be voted on by the chamber’s leadership, and soon.

The bill “expires December 31, at the end of the second session of Congress,” Benton said. “Not only would this bill have to start from scratch, but it would require a new person to introduce it.”

Republican and Democratic lawmakers who introduced the measures in their respective bodies either failed to run for reelection or lost their bids, as was the case with Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who introduced the bill in the Senate.

If the Social Security Fairness Act comes to a vote in the Senate, it is expected to pass, having already secured 62 co-sponsors, surpassing the majority needed to send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

If enacted, the changes would take effect for benefits payable after December 2023.

What does the Social Security Fairness Act do?

The legislation would remove two provisions that reduce retirement payments to public employees and their surviving spouses and family members, the Windfall Elimination Clause (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which Spanberger and Graves say , amounts to theft from these workers. benefits.

“For more than 40 years, Social Security trust funds have been artificially propped up by stolen benefits that millions of Americans have paid for and their families deserve,” they said in a Nov. 13 statement. statement.

As it stands, the WEP reduces Social Security benefits for workers who also receive a public pension for employment not covered by Social Security. For example, this would include teachers who do not earn Social Security as part of their public school position but who work part-time or during the summer in jobs covered by Social Security, even if they contribute in the system over enough quarters to qualify for it. .

The GPO impacts the spousal benefits of people who work for federal, state or local governments – including police officers, firefighters and teachers – if the job is not covered by Social Security. The GPO reduces benefits received by surviving spouses who also receive a government pension by two-thirds, often canceling benefits entirely.

For example, under the GPO, a person who receives a $900 spousal benefit from Social Security but also receives an uncovered pension of $1,000 would have their Social Security benefits reduced by $667. That would leave them with a remaining $233 spousal benefit from Social Security.

Under the Social Security Fairness Act, the same person would receive the full $900 spousal benefit.

“Workers should be able to count on the retirement benefits they have earned,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, an early cosponsor of the bill. “It’s time to pass the Social Security Fairness Act so that public employees, their families, and people with disabilities are not punished for earning multiple sources of income in retirement.”

What are the chances the Social Security Fairness Act will pass?

The biggest opposition to the bill is its cost. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would cost more than 190 billion dollars over a decade.

“This would accelerate the combined trust fund deficit from six months to a year, when it is already struggling,” said Benton, who said TSCL supports Social Security reform to resolve its projected insolvency in 2033 and 2034.

“The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address – but one that is entirely separate from enabling Virginians, Louisianans, and Americans across our country who have done their part and contributed their income to retire with dignity,” Graves and Spanberger said in their joint statement.

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