The Social Security Fairness Act is now in the hands of the Senate. Here’s what could happen next.

Efforts to get the Senate to vote on a bill to expand Social Security benefits are intensifying as the House-passed Social Security Fairness Act is rarely enforced. bipartisan support but there is only a short window of time – six weeks – to pass.

“We are cautiously optimistic,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting retirement benefits. “There is so much momentum, if it is not passed on now, many people will lose hope.”

Decades in the making, the legislation would eliminate a provision that reduces Social Security benefits to some retirees who also receive pensions from jobs not covered by the pension program, such as state and federal workers, including teachers, police officers and U.S. Postal Service workers. employees. It would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for the surviving spouses and relatives of these workers.

Various forms of the measure have been introduced over the years, but like many legislative proposals it has failed to be implemented.

“I’ve been with the league for 25 years and I can’t remember ever not having a draft,” Benton said.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., passed the House late Tuesday night on a vote of 327-75, after a last-ditch effort to derail it by members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus failed.

The WEP affects approximately 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO affects nearly 800,000 retirees.

What happens after the Social Security Fairness Act?

Despite having 62 co-sponsors in the Senate, the bill still needs to be submitted to the chamber’s leadership for a vote, and soon.

The bill “expires on December 31, at the end of the second session of Congress,” Benton said. “Not only would this bill have to start all over again, but a new person would have to introduce it.”

The Republican and Democratic lawmakers who introduced the measures in their respective bodies did not run for re-election or lost their re-election bids, as was the case with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, who introduced the bill in the Senate.

If the Social Security Fairness Act comes to a vote in the Senate, it is expected to pass as it has already secured 62 cosponsors — more than the majority needed to send the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature.

If signed into law, the changes would take effect for benefits paid after December 2023.

What does the Social Security Fairness Act do?

The legislation would eliminate two provisions that limit retirement benefits for public employees and their surviving spouses and family members: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which Spanberger and Graves say amount to theft of those employees’ property. advantages.

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

As things stand, the WEP reduces Social Security benefits for workers who also receive a government pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security. That would include, for example, teachers who do not earn Social Security through their public school job, but who work part-time or during the summer in jobs covered by Social Security, even though they pay into the system for enough quarters to qualify come. .

The GPO affects the spousal benefits of people who work for federal, state or local governments – including police officers, firefighters and teachers – if the job is not covered by Social Security. The GPO reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also receive a government pension, often fully offsetting benefits.

For example, according to the GPO, someone who receives a $900 spousal benefit from Social Security but also has a $1,000 unfunded pension would see their Social Security benefit drop by $667. That would leave them with a residual spousal benefit of $233 from Social Security.

Under the Social Security Fairness Act, the same person would receive the full $900 spousal benefit.

“Workers should be able to count on the retirement benefits they have earned,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, an original co-sponsor of the bill. “It is time to pass the Social Security Fairness Act so that government employees and their families and people with disabilities are not penalized for earning multiple sources of retirement income.”

What are the chances that the Social Security Fairness Act will pass?

The biggest objection to the bill is the costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this would cost more than $190 billion over ten years.

“It would accelerate the combined trust fund shortage by six months to a year when it is already in trouble,” said Benton, who said TSCL supports Social Security reform to resolve projected insolvency in 2033 to 2034 .

“The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address – but an issue entirely separate from allowing Virginians, Louisianans and Americans across our country who have done their part and their income contributed to retiring with dignity,” said Graves. and Spanberger said in their joint statement.