The Senate begins the final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate is pushing for a vote on legislation that would provide full social security to millions of people who established potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as Social Security Fairness Actwhich would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payments to about 2.8 million people.

Schumer said the bill would “ensure that Americans are not wrongly denied their well-deserved Social Security benefits simply because they chose at one point to work in their careers in public service.”

The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the bill introduced last year had 62 co-sponsors. But the bill still needs the support of at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then go to President Biden.

At least one GOP senator who signed the bill 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 whether it’s additional indebtedness, I don’t know,” he said.

Decades in the making, the bill would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social Security recipients: people who also receive a pension from a job not covered by Social Security Security and surviving spouses of social security recipients who receive their own state pension.

The bill will increase the burden Social Security Trust fundswhich was already estimated to be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2035. That would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office.

Late. John Thune, the no. 2 Republicans in leadership, acknowledged that the policy has strong bipartisan support, but said some Republicans also want to see it “fixed in the context of a broader Social Security reform effort.”

Conservatives have opposed the bill and decry its cost.

“Even for something that people consider to be a good cause, it shows a lack of concern for the future of the country, so I think that would be a big mistake,” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky.

Still, other Republicans have pushed Schumer to bring it up for a vote.

Late. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said last month that the current federal restrictions are “punishing families across the country who worked in a public service job for part of their career with a separate pension. We’re talking about police officers, firefighters, teachers and other public servants who are punished for serving their communities.”

He predicted the bill would pass.

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