AFGE applauds the House of Representatives for voting to repeal two controversial rules that have caused public servants to lose two-thirds or even the entire amount of their Social Security benefits.
The House last week voted 327-75 to repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) through the Social Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82, which AFGE supports.
AFGE urges Congress to repeal the GPO and WEP because GPO penalizes public servants who receive a government pension and are also eligible for Social Security benefits of their spouse. This provision reduces survivors’ benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers.
WEP penalizes those who have paid into Social Security at work but also receive a pension or a disability benefit from a prior employer that did not withhold Social Security payroll taxes, such as older federal retirees working under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), state and local government employees including teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers.
“In total, more than two million Americans have their earned benefits reduced or eliminated by the WEP and around 800,000 Americans have benefits reduced or eliminated by the GPO,” said AFGE Legislative Director Julie Tippens in a letter to members of the House before the vote. “These penalties disproportionately affect lower-income workers. About 68% of those impacted by the GPO have their benefit fully offset, which means they lose every penny of their promised Social Security benefit.”
AFGE opposed and urged the representatives to vote against a competing bill proposed by Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, which would have cut benefits for 14 million people. Arrington’s bill was defeated.
AFGE went all out for this bill
Last Congress, AFGE President Everett Kelley spoke at a rally on Capitol Hill calling for the passage of H.R. 82. We sent an action alert for our retirees to write their members in Congress and sent an organizational letter in support of H.R. 82 to Ways and Means Committee members before the committee vote.
This Congress, we’ve reached out to numerous offices to get their support on H.R. 82, which now has 330 cosponsors in the House and 62 in the Senate. In April, we submitted a statement for the record and mobilized D.C. area retirees to attend a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on WEP/GPO.
In June, AFGE District 6 Retiree Coordinator Marlena Slaughter submitted testimony for the record and attended a Senate field hearing in Columbus, Ohio, with several other AFGE members and talked with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, about how they are being harmed by WEP/GPO. In September District 14 NVP and Retiree Vice-Chair Ottis Johnson advocated for the repeal of the WEP/GPO at a Capitol Hill press conference.
This fall, AFGE helped push for the discharge petition to force a House vote on the bill.
AFGE urges the Senate to follow in the House’s footsteps and pass the senate companion Social Security Fairness Act, S. 597, introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). AFGE supports Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for a floor vote. The time to repeal the WEP/GPO is now, and it will require a transparent Senate vote.
AFGE thanks the bill’s sponsors – Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garrett Graves, R-La., for pushing for the repeal of WEL/GPO. The lawmakers a few months ago filed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on the bill.
“By passing the Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives showed up for the millions of Americans — police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other local and state public servants — who worked a second job to make ends meet or began a second career to support their families after retiring from public service. A bipartisan majority of the U.S. House voted to provide a secure retirement to the hundreds of thousands of spouses, widows, and widowers who are denied their spouses’ Social Security benefits simply because they chose careers of service,” said Spanberger and Graves after the passage of the bill. “These tireless advocates have for decades urged their elected representatives to listen to their stories and correct this injustice — and today, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House voted for them.”
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