Social Security Fairness Act passes Senate, headed to President's desk

Congress offered some Americans a Christmas gift early Saturday morning when the Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.82). It's up to President Biden to add the bow by signing the Bill into law.

The bill, which was passed by the House of Representative in November, repeals two tax provisions that impact the retirement benefits of some federal workers and other public servants such as teachers, law enforcement and firefighters.

The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), enacted in 1983, reduces the Social Security benefits of retired federal workers and other public servants who spent a portion of their careers in the private sector in addition to a federal, state or local government job where Social Security is not intended as an element of their retirement income, such as the Civil Service Retirement System. And the Government Pension Offset (GPO), enacted in 1977, reduces spousal and survivor Social Security benefits in families with retired government workers.

Some people mistakenly believe that the elimination of these provisions will allow people to receive Social Security benefits that have never paid into the system. That is not correct. What is does allow is people that may have worked in government or public service jobs that had pensions that are not based on the Social Security system, but they also worked at other jobs that did pay into the Social Security system to receive the full benefits they should be entitled to, for what they paid into Social Security.

There has been bipartisan support for the repeal for years, but it wasn't until this year that they were able to follow through. Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La. Filed a discharge petition to force a House vote. The bill passed last month by a 327-75 vote.

Local Rep. Randy Weber, R-Tx. voted yes on the measure.

As of November 2024, more than two million Americans had their Social Security benefits reduced by the WEP. Similarly, more than 650,000 people were affected by the GPO, according to the Social Security Administration.

"For too long, the government has taken away Social Security benefits from millions of retired federal, state and local government employees who worked as teachers, police, firefighters, postal workers and general employees - benefits they earned when they worked other jobs," Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said before the final Senate vote. "The WEP and GPO disproportionately affect lower-income workers and women."

There are a lot of critics of the repeal as it will accelerate the Social Security system's insolvency by six months, according to the congressional Budget Office. Currently it will reach insolvency in 2035 without further action.

A Heritage Foundation report estimates eliminating the WEP and GPO will cost Social Security $196 billion over the next decade.

Eliminating the WEP would boost monthly payments to the affected beneficiaries by an average of $360 by December 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Scrapping the GPO would increase monthly benefits by an average of $700 for recipients getting benefits based on living spouses, or an average of $1,190 for those surviving spouses getting a widow or widower benefit, the CBO estimated.

"Passing this fix right before Christmas would be a great gift to our retired firefighters, police officers, postal officers and more," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "[The WEP and GPO] are deeply unfair, and go against the American ideal of working hard, chipping in and then enjoying the retirement that you've earned."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said he saw firsthand how some public servants are penalized for spending a portion of their career in public service before he ran for office.

"Millions of teachers, firefighters, police officers and I worked in a public hospital for the uninsured, so I would also add nurses, technicians, lab techs and janitors, they all expect us to fulfill this promise and they are watching today," Cassidy said. "I'm filled with hope that the Senate will pass the Social Security Fairness Act to finally stop punishing them for having elected to serve our communities. We can fix a broken system that has unfairly harmed them for almost 30 years."

Some objected to passing the bill, including Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

"It sounds like motherhood and apple pie-the Social Security Fairness Act-who could be against Social Security fairness?" he said. "The fact of the matter is the policy does address a challenge with Social Security for a single-digit percentage of people who have a pension and are not getting exactly what they should back. So, it's something we need to fix, but this is not the way to fix it."

"When the WEP was enacted, it got the formula wrong and the result is for thousands upon thousands of retired police officers and retired firefighters and retired teacher, they got shortchanged," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx. "I've been fighting to fix the WEP problem. In 2017 I introduced legislation to fix the inequity and to treat our retired cops and firefighters and teachers fairly."

Yet, Cruz was one of the 20 Senators that voted against the bill Saturday. He felt the legislation he drafted with former U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas in 2017 was a better solution because he said it didn't cost as much and wouldn't accelerate the insolvency of Social Security.

Texas' other Senator, Republican John Cornyn voted with the majority 76 that passed the bill.

Cheryl Linscomb retired from Orangefield in 2014. She knew about the bills passage but unfortunately the bill will not benefit her or her husband, Walker.

"We don't have enough quarters paid in. I'm so happy for all my teacher friends and the policemen and the firemen. It should never have been that way," she said. "I might have been encouraged to have a summer job to get my quarters in if I thought it would have paid off in the end."

She is in the minority as approximately 95% of the teachers in Texas will benefit from the recension according to the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA).

Harvey and Doris Wilson, both retired teachers the bill will benefit, found out about the passage Saturday. They received an email from Tim Lee of the TRTA. Harvey Wilson, who retired from Orangefield ISD in 2010 is the president of the Orange County Retired Teachers Association. Doris Wilson retired from West Orange - Stark in 2004. Their Social Security benefits were penalized two thirds of what they were do because of the regulations.

"It will be useful for us if the president does sign it, so we hope that he does," said Harvey Wilson. "They said we, as retired teachers, couldn't get all of our Social Security that we had already earned previously. They said we would be double-dipping. Not every retired teacher is affected by it, but if you paid in enough to get in to Social Security before you went to teaching, then you would only get a portion of what you paid in. They used to tell us when you were older you can teach in school and pay back for the education that you got. A lot of us did that and it didn't work that way at all."

"Many teachers worked part-time jobs and got hours in that way," said Doris Wilson. She said one teacher had her school pension and her husband was on Social Security. When the husband died, she was not allowed to receive his survivor benefit because of the law. The law affects teachers in 17 states. They campaigned their legislators when they knew it was coming up. They were kept informed by the TRTA. She encourages retired teachers to become members of the Orange County Retired Teachers Association to stay up-to-date on legislation and other things that affect their retirement. To join, contact Harvey Wilson at 409-670-8992.

The changes, expected to be signed by President Biden will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024.