Social Security Fairness Act to get a vote in the Senate, says Chuck Schumer

A bill passed by the House that would expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans just got a lifeline in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he would start the process for a final vote on Social Security Fairness Actwhich would eliminate two federal policies that prevent some Americans from getting their full Social Security benefits, including police officers, firefighters and teachers.

A living-and-breathing example is Terry Hoover, a firefighter in Louisville, Kentucky, for more than 20 years. Now retired, he says these two supplies cost his family more than $1,000 a month.

“My Social Security has been reduced because of my pension,” Hoover told fellow first responders at a meeting earlier this week when 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 can’t take a dime from her because of my pension.”

Schumer, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the legislation, tweeted the bill would “ensure that Americans are not wrongfully denied their well-deserved Social Security benefits simply because they chose at one 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 vote in the full Senate.

That’s important as the clock is ticking on its fate, with just 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 not covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end another provision that reduces Social Security benefits for the surviving spouses and family members of these workers. The WEP affects approx 2 million Social Security Beneficiaries and GPO almost 800,000 pensioners.

Various forms of the measure have been introduced over the years, but like many bills, they had not passed.

“I’ve worked in the league for 25 years and I don’t remember ever having a version,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of The Senior Citizens League, or TSCL, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting retirement benefits. proposals which the league supports. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” she told CBS MoneyWatch earlier this month.

The bill had 62 co-sponsors when the Senate version was introduced last year, and it would now need at least 60 votes to pass Congress and then go to President Biden.

In a speech earlier this month, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said went to the Senate floor to call for a vote in the floor. “If Schumer brings it up, it will pass,” said Cassidy, among its Republican sponsors.

Will the Senate Pass the Social Security Fairness Act?

At least one GOP senator who signed similar legislation last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he was still “weighing” whether to vote for the bill next week. “Nothing is ever paid for, so it’s additional indebtedness, I don’t know,” Braun said, according to the Associated Press.

The opposition includes the Committee for a Responsible Budget, a nonpartisan organization committed to educating the public about issues with significant fiscal impact. In a statement in response 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 already are estimated to not being able to pay out the full amount of planned benefits starting in 2035. According to to Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.

“The Senate should reject repeal of WEP and GPO. Instead, they should come together to try to fix the problems 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.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., and was passed by the House by a vote of 327-75 last month.

If the Senate doesn’t act, “the measure dies on Dec. 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.”

contributed to this report.