Discharge Petition to be Filed to Move WEP, GPO Repeal Along
When Congress gets back from August recess, lawmakers plan to renew efforts to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), two provisions that eat into the Social Security benefits of some government workers and their families.
Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Garrett Graves (R-LA) say they’ll file a discharge pension to get their legislation, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), a vote on the House floor.
The legislation, which would repeal both WEP and GPO, has 325 co-sponsors in the House but has languished in the Ways and Means Committee. A discharge petition needs a majority of lawmakers (at least 218) to be successful.
“For more than 40 years, millions of Americans — police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other local and state public servants — have been stripped of their Social Security benefits as an unjust penalty for devoting much of their careers to serving their communities and fellow Americans,” said Representatives Spanberger and Graves. “For years, we have worked together to build bipartisan support for this effort and urge House Leadership to take real action to right this wrong. As those efforts have stalled, we are using every tool at our disposal to finally get this done.”
WEP reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who receive a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security.
GPO reduces benefits for beneficiaries who also receive government pensions of their own.
Currently, about three million retirees and their families are affected by both programs, which were enacted in the 1970s and 80s to prevent “double dipping.”
Other Legislation
Meanwhile, another group of lawmakers put forth a different bill to repeal WEP and GPO.
The Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act (H.R. 5342) would replace WEP with a new formula for calculating the Social Security benefits of those who split their career between the private and public sectors.
The measure is sponsored by Representatives Vincente Gonzalez (D-TX) and Jody Arrington (R-TX), Chair of the House Budget Committee. All other co-sponsors are Republicans.