A bill to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now on the desk of President Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.

Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would do that Elimination of two federal policies which prevents nearly three million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and other public pension recipients, from receiving their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has taken decades to develop, with the Senate holding its first hearings on the guidelines in 2003.

“The Senate is finally correcting a 50-year-old mistake,” announced Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.

The law’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public workers who have been denied the full benefits they rightfully deserve,” said Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, which has long advocated for retirees This is achieved by expanding social security benefits. “This legislation finally restores equity to the system and ensures that the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”

The vote came as the Senate was concluding its current session. Senators late Friday night rejected four amendments and a budget point of order that would have derailed the measure given the short window left for its passage.

Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among 24 Republican senators who joined 49 Democrats in supporting the measure in a first procedural vote Wednesday.

“Social security is a cornerstone of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” said Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, in the Chamber before Wednesday’s vote . “These workers only demand what they have earned.”

What is the Social Security Fairness Act?

The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies – the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) – that reduce Social Security payments for nearly 3 million retirees.

This includes those who also receive pensions from state and federal jobs not covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also eliminate a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and dependents. The WEP affects approximately 2 million Social Security recipients and the GPO affects nearly 800,000 retirees.

The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 co-sponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. But bipartisan support for the bill weakened in recent days, and some Republican lawmakers expressed doubts about its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would likely increase the federal deficit by $195 billion over a decade.

Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have had to be reintroduced in the next Congress.