Baton Rouge Reporter

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

Last week, Graves and Spanberger filed a discharge petition to prompt a vote on their legislation aimed at eliminating both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). These provisions reduce or eliminate earned Social Security benefits for approximately 2.8 million Americans, including police officers, firefighters, educators, and government employees at various levels.

“Today is a major milestone made possible by tireless advocates who’ve made clear that Congress must act. From Louisiana to Virginia to everywhere else in America, millions of retired public servants have waited more than 40 years for their elected officials to tackle this fundamental issue of fairness. These retirees deserve the benefits they earned through their hard work — and they deserve to see the WEP and GPO eliminated,” said Graves and Spanberger. “Over the past week, we’ve demonstrated that both Republicans and Democrats — from across the political spectrum — understand that the time is now to remove these penalties. But our work is far from over. We will be dogged in making sure the Social Security Fairness Act passes in the U.S. House, passes in the U.S. Senate, and finally gets signed into law. We must get it done.”

With 218 signatures collected, the petition will now sit on the U.S. House Calendar for seven legislative days before Reps. Graves and Spanberger request that it be scheduled for a vote by the Speaker of the House within two legislative days thereafter.

Earlier today, Graves and Spanberger hosted a press conference with representatives of retired police officers, firefighters, letter carriers, government employees, and educators from across the country.

The Social Security Fairness Act currently has 327 cosponsors.

Graves and Spanberger reintroduced this bill in January 2023 at the start of the 118th Congress. In November 2023, they urged a hearing on reforms to WEP and GPO by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee; this hearing was held later that month. In March 2024, they pushed for further action by requesting a markup on their bill.

Currently, WEP reduces earned Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a public pension from jobs not covered by Social Security—affecting about 2 million beneficiaries nationwide—while GPO reduces spousal benefits for government employees if their job is not covered by Social Security—impacting nearly 800,000 retirees.