For a long time, the future of Social Security has been uncertain. Finally, after months of talks, the House is going to try to pass a bill that fixes a problem that has been going on for a long time. The Social Security Fairness Act is a bill that was proposed by both Democrats and Republicans. Its goal is to make sure that workers who are also eligible for other pensions can get their benefits.
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The so-called “government pensions offset,” or GPO, would be done away with by the Social Security Fairness Act. This is the rule that changes how much a person who gets “non-covered pensions” gets in Social Security spousal or widow(er) benefits.
A non-covered pension is one that is paid by a company that does not take Social Security taxes out of your pay. This usually means that the company is not in the United States or is a state or local government. […] The GPO cuts the spousal or widow(er) benefit by two-thirds of the monthly non-covered pension.
Depending on the amount of the non-covered pension, it can fully or partially offset a person’s spousal or widow(er) benefit, according to the Social Security Administration’s website.
The “windfall elimination provision,” or WEP, would also be taken away. This is a formula that is used to change Social Security worker benefits for people who get “non-covered pensions” and qualify for benefits based on other Social Security–covered earnings.
It can lower Social Security benefits for people who also get a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes.
Two Republicans, Rep. Garrett Graves of Louisiana, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, introduced the bill. It was a big hit in the House, with support from 300 lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The bill got stuck for a while, and Rep. Graves and Rep. Spanberger had to use the discharge petition process to get the bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote. They did this by getting at least 218 signatures from House lawmakers.
People don’t usually use this method because they think it’s disrespectful to House leaders, especially the House speaker and the majority leader, who set the floor schedule. But in this case, House Speaker Jhonson already supported the bill, so the consequences would not have been as bad.
Even though it will need more votes than the simple majority it needed before, the bill still has enough support to pass. It just needs a supermajority to get through. If it passes in the House, it still has to get through the Senate.
We don’t know if it has enough support there, but the measure seems to be pretty popular, and with so many House members in favor of it, it might have a good chance of passing.
In order for the bill to become law, it would have to be signed by the President of the United States. If it were signed, it would apply to all benefits due after December 2023.
The impact of the bill on real people
Some bills, like this one, make it hard to know how they will affect the people they are meant to protect. This is why it’s so important to look at examples from real life, like the one below.
Under the GPO, a person with a $900 spousal benefit from Social Security and a $1,000 non-covered pension would have their Social Security benefit cut by $667, which is two-thirds of the amount of their non-covered pension. That means they still have a spousal benefit of $233.
If the GPO measure is thrown out, the same person would be able to get the full $900 spousal benefit amount without having to pay anything extra.
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