Social Security bill to expand benefits is in the hands of the Senate

The House passed the Social Security Fairness Act with rare bipartisan support, but it only has six weeks to be passed. This means that efforts to get the Senate to vote on a bill to increase Social Security benefits are stepping up.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a group that fights to protect retirement benefits. “There is so much momentum, if it doesn’t get passed now, a lot of people will lose hope.”

The bill has been in the works for decades and would get rid of a rule that lowers Social Security payments for some retirees who also get a pension from jobs that aren’t covered by the retirement program.

These are teachers, police officers, and U.S. postal workers who work for the government or for a state. It would also get rid of a second rule that lowers Social Security benefits for the surviving spouses and family members of those workers.

Over the years, different versions of the bill have been proposed, but like many other legislative ideas, they have not been passed.

“I’ve been working at the league 25 years, and I don’t remember ever not having a version,” he said.

The bill, which was introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.), was passed by the House by a vote of 327 to 75 late Tuesday night, even though members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus tried to stop it at the last minute but failed.

About 2 million people who get Social Security benefits and about 800,000 retirees from the GPO are affected by the WEP.

What happens next to the Social Security Fairness Act?

Senators have signed on to the bill 62 times, but it still needs to be put to a vote soon by the leaders of the chamber.

Benton said that the bill “dies December 31, at the end of the second session of Congress.” “Not only would this bill have to start from scratch, but a new person would have to introduce it.”

The Republican and Democratic lawmakers who introduced the bills in their own bodies either didn’t run for reelection or lost. For example, Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who introduced the bill in the Senate, did not run for reelection.

The Social Security Fairness Act has 62 co-sponsors, which is more than the majority needed to send it to President Joe Biden for his signature. If it comes up for a vote in the Senate, it’s likely to pass.

The changes would kick in for benefits due after December 2023 if they are signed into law.

What does the Social Security Fairness Act do?

The legislation would get rid of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), two parts that limit retirement payments for public workers and their surviving spouses and family members. Spanberger and Graves say this is the same thing as stealing those workers’ benefits.

“For more than 40 years, the Social Security trust funds have been artificially propped up by stolen benefits that millions of Americans paid for and that their families deserve,” they wrote in a Nov. 13 statement.

Right now, the WEP cuts the Social Security benefits of people who also get a public pension from a job that isn’t covered by Social Security.

That would include teachers who don’t get Social Security from their jobs at public schools but do work part-time or during the summer in jobs that do, even though they have paid into the system for enough quarters to be eligible.

People who work for the federal, state, or local government, like teachers, police officers, and firefighters, and whose jobs aren’t covered by Social Security, will have their spousal benefits changed by the GPO.

The GPO cuts by two-thirds the benefit that surviving spouses get if they also get a government pension. This often cancels out the benefits completely.

One example of this would be someone who gets a $900 spousal benefit from Social Security and a $1,000 non-covered pension. Their Social Security benefit would be cut by $667 under the GPO. After that, they would still get $233 from Social Security as a spousal benefit.

The Social Security Fairness Act says that the full $900 spousal benefit would go to the same person.

“Workers should be able to count on the retirement benefits they’ve earned,” said Susan Warren, D-Mass., one of the bill’s original sponsors. “It’s time to pass the Social Security Fairness Act so government workers and their families and people with disabilities are not punished for earning multiple sources of retirement income.”

What is the chance of the Social Security Fairness Act passing?

The cost of the bill is the main reason people are against it. The Congressional Budget Office says it will cost more than $190 billion over ten years.

Benton said, “It would speed up the combined trust funds shortfall by six months to a year, when it’s already in trouble.” TSCL supports reforming Social Security to stop it from going bankrupt in 2033 or 2034, as planned.

“The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address — but an issue that is wholly separate from allowing Virginians, Louisianans, and Americans across our country who did their part and contributed their earnings to retire with dignity,” Spanberger and Graves said in their joint statement.

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