Republicans are breaking protocol to kill the expansion of Social Security benefits

While many Republicans have called for protecting or even expanding Social Security benefits, GOP lawmakers killed a bill that would have helped millions of Americans get higher monthly payments. Experts spoke with Newsweek about the possible motives behind the move.

A Social Security bill that would have repealed two rules on lower benefits for certain retirees was introduced by House Reps. Garret Graves, (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).

Despite the bill previously having broad bipartisan support, and Graves and Spanberger securing the 218 signatures needed to bring the bill to the House floor, the Freedom Caucus blocked the bill from passage.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) won unanimous consent to table Social Security legislation. This broke protocol and causes the bill to be dormant for now. To pass it, lawmakers would have to vote under discharge rules.

Or a new bill could be introduced with similar guidelines for Social Security recipients currently affected by unexpected elimination provisions (WEP) and government pension compensation (GPO).

These provisions reduce Social Security benefits relative to a recipient’s pension amount, affecting individuals who receive pensions from employment not covered by Social Security.

Newsweek reached out to Graves and Harris for comment via email.

The law, if implemented, would have cost $196 billion over 10 years, while the Social Security Administration is already facing a funding shortfall that would reduce benefits as early as 2035.

“I think Republicans blocked this bill to delay changes until they get a majority in the House or Senate,” said Kevin Thompson, a financial expert and founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group. Newsweek. “While they cited the cost of the package as the reason, the timing suggests a possible strategic move to maintain control.”

For many current Social Security recipients, the WEP and GPO take thousands of dollars off their annual benefit amounts, and many of these are retired public employees, former police officers, teachers and nurses.

“The GPO and WEP are designed to prevent beneficiaries from receiving more than their eligible share of benefits. To clarify, they do not reduce benefits for those who are fully eligible for both Social Security and retirement benefits. If someone has not paid into Social Security security, they shouldn’t expect full Social Security and retirement benefits at the same time,” Thompson said.

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, said it’s unclear whether tabling the bill was because lawmakers opposed the idea or want to introduce a new bill instead in the future.

“The bill in question extended Social Security benefits to a small group that had previously been excluded because of provisions to combine those benefits with additional pensions from workers in certain fields,” Beene said Newsweek.

He added: “The proposal was popular and had bipartisan support, which makes it even more puzzling not to deal with it for the time being. The hope is that the decision to table it for now will result in it being offered in another form in the future. . The benefits the recipients would receive would greatly help them in the bloated economic times we find ourselves in at the moment.”