Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves teams up with one of his Democratic colleagues to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act.
Congressman Graves says the bill removes the penalty for those who work in the public sector.
“If you’re a police officer, a teacher, a firefighter or other public employee, when you go to retire, your Social Security benefits will be reduced compared to someone else who did not work in public service,” says Graves.
Graves says the law as originally passed was not intended to penalize public sector workers like police officers or school teachers.
“There was a law that changed in (1983) that installed this penalty,” Graves notes. “It was reportedly not designed to be discriminatory like this, but that has been the effect.”
The 1983 Social Security Act added the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset.
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security.
Graves says as a result, public sector workers have seen their Social Security benefits greatly reduced.
“We have folks whose Social Security benefits had been reduced by two-thirds as a result,” Graves says. “This reduction has caused people — retirees — to have to be dependent upon social welfare programs like food stamps in order to make ends meet.”
The Government Pension Offset reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension.
The bill by Graves and Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger would repeal those two provisions.
“These Americans shouldn’t have their retirement benefits slashed — and in some cases altogether eliminated — just because they chose to dedicate part of their careers to serving our communities,” said Spanberger.
This is not a controversial bill; Graves says it has 328 co-sponsors – more than enough for the bill to sail through the House.
Graves and Spanberger got lawmakers to sign a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill, which should happen sometime in the coming weeks.