Baton Rouge Reporter

U.S. Representatives Garret Graves and Abigail Spanberger announced that the U.S. Senate has passed the Social Security Fairness Act, which aims to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The bill now awaits the president's signature to become law.

In a joint statement, Graves and Spanberger emphasized the significance of this legislative milestone: “Finally, Congress showed up for the millions of Americans — police officers, firefighters, teachers, federal employees, and other local and state public servants — who worked a second job to care for their families or began a second career to afford to live. Congress showed up for the hundreds of thousands of widows and widowers who are denied their spouses’ Social Security benefits while grappling with their loss.”

They continued by highlighting their efforts in advocating for these changes: “For years, we’ve worked alongside these advocates to build overwhelming bipartisan support among our colleagues, urged leadership to give these reforms the consideration impacted Americans deserve, and ultimately force a vote on the U.S. House floor to put an end to this theft. We will not take our foot off the gas until this bill reaches the president’s desk and is signed into law to repeal the WEP and GPO.”

The WEP and GPO were introduced into the Social Security Act in 1983. These provisions have been criticized for reducing or eliminating retirement benefits for over 2.4 million public service workers such as police officers, firefighters, educators, and government employees at various levels. A nonpartisan report from 2024 states that more than 1.7 million Americans are affected by WEP while over 420,000 face challenges due to GPO.

Graves and Spanberger reintroduced this legislation at the start of 2023 during the 118th Congress session. They actively pushed for hearings on these issues within relevant committees throughout 2023 and early 2024.

Currently under WEP rules individuals receiving both public pensions from non-Social Security jobs alongside covered employment experience reduced benefits despite contributing adequately into those systems themselves; similarly through GPO surviving spouses receiving governmental pensions may see two-thirds reductions against any remaining entitlements - sometimes resulting total offsets entirely when calculated together accordingly without adjustments made beforehand first-hand analysis considered thoroughly across all applicable cases therein involved parties affected adversely as well overall nationwide impact assessment reviewed further detailed breakdowns available upon request regarding specific instances encountered individually separately discussed thereafter addressed directly where necessary appropriate actions taken subsequently follow-up measures implemented accordingly respective situations arise require intervention promptly handled efficiently resolved timely manner 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