Social Security Fairness Act to get a vote in the Senate, Chuck Schumer says
A House-passed bill that would expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans just got a lifeline in the Senate.
Senate Majority Chuck Schumer last week started the process for a final vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that keep a portion of Americans from getting their full Social Security benefits, including cops, fire fighters and teachers.
Using his power to invoke cloture — a process limiting debate and setting a 30-hour window before a final vote must be held — the proposed legislation as of Monday's Senate schedule was headed for a vote.
One living-and-breathing example is Terry Hoover, a firefighter in Louisville, Kentucky, for more than 20 years. Now retired, he says these two provisions cost his family more than $1,000 a month.
"My Social Security is reduced due to my pension," Hoover, told fellow first responders at a rally earlier in the week, as reported by a local CBS affiliate. "And then my wife, she was a nurse for 41 years and paid into the Social Security system, you know, and I cannot draw one penny off of her because of my pension."
Schumer, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the legislation, tweeted the bill would "ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in public service." As majority leader, he can invoke a Senate rule that would skip a committee hearing and send the bill directly to a floor vote by the full Senate.
That's important, as the clock is ticking as to its fate, with only days left in the current session of Congress.
Decades in the making, the bill would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that broadly reduce payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren't covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers' surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
Various forms of the measure have been introduced over the years, but like many legislative proposals, they had failed to get enacted.
"I've been working at the league 25 years, and I don't remember ever not having a version," Shannon Benton executive director of The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, an advocacy group devoted to protecting retirement benefits, said of the proposal, which the league supports. "We're guardedly optimistic," she told CBS MoneyWatch earlier in the month.
The bill had 62 cosponsors when the Senate version was introduced last year, and would now need at least 60 votes to pass Congress and then head to President Biden.
In a speech earlier this month, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy took to the Senate floor to call for a vote in the chamber. "If Schumer brings it up, it'll pass," said Cassidy, among its Republican sponsors.
Will the Senate pass the Social Security Fairness Act?
At least one GOP senator who signed onto similar legislation last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he was still "weighing" whether to vote for the bill next week. "Nothing ever gets paid for, so it's further indebtedness, I don't know," Braun said, according to the Associated Press.
Opposition includes the Committee for a Responsible Budget, a nonpartisan organization committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact. In a statement responding to Schumer's announcement, the group's president, Maya MacGuineas, said it was "truly astonishing" that lawmakers would consider speeding up the trust fund's demise.
The measure would increase the burden on Social Security's trust funds, which are already estimated to not be able to pay the full amount of scheduled benefits starting in 2035. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
"The Senate should reject WEP and GPO repeal. Instead, they should come together to try to fix the issues with WEP and GPO as part of a comprehensive package to strengthen Social Security, prevent insolvency and make the program's finances sustainable over the long term," MacGuineas urged.
Introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., the bill was passed by the House in a vote of 327-75 last month.
If the Senate does not act, the measure "dies December 31, at the end of the second session of Congress," Benton said. "Not only would this bill have to start from scratch, but a new person would have to introduce it."