Momentum is building around legislation that could mean higher Social Security benefits for some Americans as Senate leadership prepares for a vote next week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) surprised some senators this week when he took the first step toward considering the Social Security Fairness Act and announced plans to bring the bill up for a vote next week.

“The Senate will vote on the Social Security Fairness Act before the end of the year,” he said Thursday, calling the move a chance for senators “to do the right thing for our teachers, nurses, postal workers, law enforcement officers and firefighters.”

Schumer and other supporters say the bill aims to prevent unwarranted cuts in benefits for millions of people who worked in the public sector by repealing two tax provisions known as the “windfall elimination provision” and the “government pension offset.” are known.

Experts say the measures are aimed at preventing some beneficiaries from receiving both their pensions and relatively larger Social Security payouts than they deserve.

The bill passed the House last month with strong bipartisan support — and supporters are confident history will repeat itself in the Senate after it passed the House last month with strong bipartisan support.

But some Republicans have already expressed concerns about what this could mean for the program’s bankruptcy date.

“If this bill passes, it’s going to take six, seven, eight months, and if Social Security runs out of money, that’s a very serious thing to consider,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Hill.

“But that doesn’t say how I will vote on the bill,” he added. “I’m just saying I’m going to make everyone aware so they know that if they pass it, we’re going to have to deal with Social Security almost a year early.”

Others also expressed initial concerns about estimates of the bill’s likely cost.

“I’ll look at it,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said this week. But he added that if Schumer “finds a way to make it more expensive, I won’t be for it.”

“We really can’t afford to keep spending more and more, and that’s just the reality of our situation,” he said, before expressing some skepticism about Schumer’s move.

“By and large, these things are done to curry favor with a political group, which is what Democrats have been doing for years, and it worked for a while. But that’s over now.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the bill would cost more than $190 billion over a decade. A letter to Grassley last month also predicted that Social Security trust funds “could be depleted approximately six months sooner than would be the case under current law” if the bill were enacted.

However, outgoing Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who sponsored the bill in the House, argued earlier this year that the Budget Office’s estimate of inaction on the legislation would mean “the public would be deprived of $195 in Social Security benefits.” .6 billion US dollars are stolen”. Service retirees in the next decade.”

“And as CBO only looks forward, not the past, it is overwhelming to think of the literal hundreds of billions that have been stolen from public sector retirees over the last 40 years when they needed it most,” Graves said at that time. “We must do it right and ensure our teachers, police officers, firefighters and others receive the Social Security benefits they have earned throughout their careers serving the public.”

The bill’s chances of passage in the Senate are optimistic, as more than 60 co-sponsors have backed the upper house version.

“The Majority Leader said he would get the word out and make it happen,” Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told The Hill. “There was a good vote in the House of Representatives.”

“I’ve been doing this for a while, you don’t see it often where people use the dismissal motion to challenge their leadership,” Wyden said, referring to Graves’ specific maneuver that allows members to seize the GOP leadership circumvent and use force. Considerations for legislation.

Unions have so far welcomed the growing push behind the legislation.

“This bipartisan effort shows that when we stand together as working people, we can right the wrongs of the past,” Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said this week. “I am proud of the actions our members have taken to encourage lawmakers to advance this bill.”

But some budget hawks are sounding the alarm.

“It is truly astonishing that at a time when we are just nine years away from fully depleting the trust fund for the largest program in the country, the Legislature would consider expediting this by six months,” said Maya MacGuineas , President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Thursday’s statement. “There is also another $200 billion in new loans.”

“Accelerating Social Security insolvency will only worsen its consequences; Benefits will be cut by another percent, while lifetime benefits will be cut by $25,000 for a typical couple,” she argued. “We should be talking about how we can prevent this cut, not making it bigger and happening sooner.”

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