The Social Security bill bogged down after the election night maneuver

Members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus orchestrated an unusual spectacle on the House floor during a rare election night, at 5 p.m. pro forma session that ended up killing, at least for now, a widely popular bill that was supposed to hit the floor as soon as next week.

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., had successfully collected the 218 signatures needed for a discharge petition to bypass GOP leaders and bring up bipartisan legislation that would repeal two longstanding provisions that add to Security benefits for certain pensioners. They were set to make their move as early as Tuesday night by triggering a two-day clock to bring the special rule for immediate consideration of the bill to the floor.

With 330 co-sponsors, including now-Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who was one of the first to put his name forward early in the 118th Congress, passage of the measure was all but guaranteed. GOP leaders considered simply bringing it to the floor under suspension of the rules next week, which skips a rules vote but requires two-thirds of members present and voting to pass.

Then the Freedom Caucus, which opposes the measure’s $196 billion cost over a decade, intervened.

What happened: Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., a more or less local member from the Eastern Shore, led the pro forma session, which lasted a full seven minutes.

During the short session, he recognized outgoing Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. — the former chairman of the Freedom Caucus who lost his primary — for a unanimous consent request. Good’s motion to table the Social Security bill passed by unanimous consent, with no objections from others in the room.

The effect of laying the bill on the table in this context, under the rules of the House, has the same effect as defeating a bill on the floor; it is currently dead. Since the discharge petition was actually filed on the rule for consideration, not the bill itself, the rule could still be called for a vote under discharge procedures, which, if passed, would remove the bill from the table and allow for a vote.

Alternatively, an entirely new, identical bill could simply be introduced — as early as Friday’s pro forma session — and that measure put up for a vote under suspension of the rules as early as next week.

So it’s not a permanent hold on the Social Security bill by any means, but the way the maneuver took place is striking.

Harris’ move to recognize Good runs counter to the “announced policies of the Speaker” in the exercise of authority under House rules, which stipulate that such UC requests can only be made after receiving assurances that the majority and minority leadership of both Parliament and the relevant committees have no objection.

Indeed, before Harris recognized Good, MP Jason Smith can be heard saying on the microphone: “The Chair will not grant the gentleman’s request. The Speaker cannot grant the gentleman’s request.”

Harris and the parliamentarian appear to have had words after the House adjournment, according to congressional procedure expert Kacper Surdy – known as “ringwiss” on the social platform X – who created an account of the exchange to his X account.

Heavy price tag

Even if the bill ends up passing the House, the price tag and limited time left in the session make it an uphill battle to clear the Senate, although it has more than enough backers in that chamber to overcome a filibuster.

The legislation would repeal “windfall elimination provisions” and “public pension offsets,” which reduce Social Security benefits for those who spent parts of their careers in state and local government or other positions where their earnings were not subject to Social Security taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost $196 billion over a decade and push back the date of Social Security fund exhaustion by six months. The bill’s backers argue that six months isn’t all that significant given that Congress was already supposed to act sometime around 2034, and that even the advertised price tag is misleading.

Rather than taxpayer dollars being wasted, the cost represents money “taken out of the hard-earned monthly Social Security checks of retired law enforcement officers, teachers, nurses and bus drivers over the next 10 years,” according to the National Association of Police Organizations, which has lobbied for the measure.

Graves, the lead GOP sponsor, is leaving Congress after a redistricting resulted in his district becoming one that heavily favors Democrats. Spanberger is running for governor of Virginia.

In a statement after the floor action Tuesday, Graves dismissed the Freedom Caucus movement as a meaningless stunt. “Now that this new precedent has been set, I plan to petition UC to send every American a pony,” he said.