The Senate votes on a bill to increase social security for state employees

Public workers are encouraged after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he will bring to a vote a bill that could increase their Social Security benefits.

The bill to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduce Social Security benefits for certain retirees who also receive retirement income, passed the House of Representatives last month. The bill, or Social Security Fairness Act, has 62 co-sponsors, suggesting it has filibuster-proof support that also needs to be approved by the Senate. Instead, it has sunk there, to the frustration of public workers who gathered outside the Capitol in the rain on Wednesday to demand Schumer bring the bill to a vote. If the bill is not passed by the end of the year, it is dead.

Combined, WEP and GPO affect nearly 3 million Americans, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers and public school teachers.

Schumer addressed the rally briefly, telling them: “I’m here to tell you that we’re going to call for a vote.”

On Thursday morning, Schumer followed suit, requesting that discussion on the bill be closed in order to move it forward. He also told senators they would vote next week.

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How do WEP and GPO reduce Social Security benefits?

The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reduces Social Security for those who receive so-called “unfunded” retirement income from jobs, typically in the public sector, that did not pay Social Security payroll taxes. The reduction can be significant – up to half of the pension amount.
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) Reduces survivor or spousal benefits if a person’s pension is not covered. GPO affects fewer people but cuts Social Security benefits by two-thirds of the pension amount. If two-thirds of your state pension is more than your Social Security benefit, your benefit could be reduced to zero.

Schumer says Democrats are on board. What about the Republicans?

Schumer guaranteed that Democratic senators would keep their word and approve the bill, but told the crowd: “We need 15 Republicans – let’s get them – and we’ll have the vote.”

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) echoed that sentiment to USA Today last week. He said he heard the bill didn’t have enough votes to pass because Republican senators may have backed out.

The few Republican senators who responded to USA TODAY’s inquiries last week said they remained loyal to the bill.

Hopeful, but not taking any risks

Schumer’s comments give public sector retirees hope, but they don’t take the bill’s passage for granted.

“I’m going to send another request to all hundred senators to vote yes … when it comes to the floor vote,” said Susan Dixon, 68, a retired teacher in San Clemente, California, and president of the California Retired Teachers Association. She traveled with a group to the rally in Washington DC

“I am also working with the National WEP GPO Task Force and we are conducting a legislative alert for voters,” she said after the rally.

Before the rally, a group of voters traveled from Massachusetts and distributed information about the GPO to each senator’s office.

“You get a lot of information about WEP that affects firefighters, police officers and teachers,” said Massachusetts voter Nadia Milleron. “But they don’t get very much information about GPO, which affects very low-income public servants, mostly women. If their husband dies, they will not receive social security contributions because they worked in the public sector. This is so, so sad and puts people in desperate poverty.”

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Is the Social Security Fairness Act fair?

The rules were intended to prevent Social Security from overpaying people who worked in non-covered retirement jobs, policy experts said. People with income outside of the Social Security system can look like low earners.

Because Social Security replaces a higher percentage of previous income for lower earners than for higher earners, those who earned healthy government salaries for decades would receive the same benefit in Social Security calculations as long-time low earners, advocates of the rules argued.

Many public sector retirees argue that they also had jobs in the private sector in addition to their retirement jobs. Social Security taxes were automatically deducted from their personal employment pay so they were paid into the system and are entitled to full Social Security benefits in retirement.

“I’m not getting the amount I earned from paying into Social Security,” said Barbara Mahaffey, 70, who lives in Chillicothe, Ohio. “I’m not double-dipping. This is a common misunderstanding. For the past 50 years, most public sector workers have had to work two jobs to make ends meet. Many of us worked in public service to help others…The WEP unfairly reduced my Social Security income.”

Most policy analysts agree that something can be done to strengthen Social Security for these workers, but the Social Security Fairness Act is not the answer.

Without offsets, repealing WEP and GPO would cost $196 billion over the next decade, accelerate Social Security’s insolvency by about six months, and increase automatic benefit cuts when they occur, according to the nonpartisan nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

In November, the U.S. budget deficit rose 17% year over year to $366.8 billion, making the total for the first two months of the fiscal year more than 64% higher on an unadjusted basis than the same period last year, said the Ministry of Finance.

Many research groups, including the Bipartisan Policy Center, which seeks to represent ideas from both Republicans and Democrats, instead support replacing WEP with a “proportional formula” for Social Security. This would allow retirees to receive Social Security benefits based on the portion of income covered by Social Security, they said.

“Proponents of the bill make it seem like they’re trying to help struggling seniors, but the targeted beneficiaries are a broad group of mostly high-paid state retirees,” said Gary Brewer, 67, a retired accountant from Sacramento, Calif., who disagrees does affected by WEP or GPO. “The reasoning behind it is fair and undeniable… If this generosity simply came out of nowhere, it would be less offensive, but it would come from the rapidly depleting Social Security trust fund.”

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The Senate votes on a bill to increase social security for state employees

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