Legislation to eliminate WEP and GPO clears the house

On November 14, 2024By Littum

The House passed the Social Security Fairness Act on Tuesday night by a vote of 327 to 75, bringing the removal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and the government’s Pension Offset closer to reality than ever.

Social Security’s WEP and GPO have been around for decades. The two provisions reduce and in some cases completely cancel Social Security benefits for retirees and other public sector employees who have worked in state and local government, as well as their spouses, widows and widowers.

The House vote came after Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-Pa.), the original co-sponsors of the reinstated Social Security Fairness Act, filed a discharge petition in September to try to push the bill toward a vote. About a week later, the petition reached the threshold of 218 signatures needed to force the bill to the House floor.

The legislation would “provide a secure retirement to the hundreds of thousands of spouses, widows and widowers who are denied their spouse’s Social Security benefits simply because they chose a career of service,” Spanberger and Graves said Tuesday in a joint statement.

Through decades of advocacy to repeal the WEP and GPO, support for the legislation has steadily grown. The House version of the Social Security Fairness Act gained 330 co-sponsors this year, making it one of the most supported bills in all of Congress.

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, which has pushed for the bill’s passage for years, said the legislation has never gotten this far before.

“The overwhelming bipartisan support for the Social Security Fairness Act underscores the urgent need for this legislation, and with continued advocacy and support, we can create the changes needed to protect the benefits of our nation’s retired public employees,” NARFE National President William Shackelford said in a declaration.

Now the legislation faces its next hurdle: passage in the Senate. The Senate companion to the Social Security Fairness Act currently has 62 co-sponsors.

“We call on Senate leadership to build on this clear momentum, bring our bipartisan efforts to a vote, and deliver retirement security to Americans who have earned it,” Spanberger and Graves said.

Unlike the House, the Senate does not have a procedure for discharge petitions — the strategy that Spanberger and Graves used to force the House vote.

“In the Senate, we have the votes to defeat a filibuster, but it needs to be brought to a vote,” said John Hatton, NARFE’s staff vice president for policy and programs. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin. “But someone may object to proceeding, which could cause a delay of two weeks or so in getting it through.”

Federal groups, such as the Federal Managers Association, are urging the Senate to consider the bill before the end of this Congress.

The legislation will “provide this long-overdue relief to the public servants affected by the GPO and WEP,” FMA National President Craig Carter said in a statement. “It is time to retire these provisions to the dustbin of history for the benefit of all civil servants who have been deprived of what they have served for far too long.”

But at the same time, the Senate faces “must-pass” legislation this year, including the National Defense Authorization Act and the Fiscal 2025 appropriations bill, which will likely occupy a good portion of lawmakers’ time and attention.

Hatton said the biggest challenge for the Social Security Fairness Act is “convincing Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other members of the Senate that this is a priority that needs to be done now.”

Some members of Congress have also looked at alternatives to a complete repeal of WEP and the GPO. A couple of other bills aim to change the benefit calculation rather than repeal the two provisions entirely. Supporters of these bills raised concerns that a complete repeal would affect Social Security’s solvency, while reforming the calculation would ensure “parity” between public and private sector employees.

If the Social Security Fairness Act is passed, there will likely still be a period of delay before it takes effect for those affected by the WEP and GPO.

“It all turns into an operation that Social Security can do,” Hatton said. “But it is unclear how long it will take for implementation.”