The Social Security Fairness Act may yet get a chance to pass the Senate before the end of the year. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives without much opposition, is a bipartisan effort to repeal two clauses that reduce Social Security benefits for millions of Americans.
The bill aims to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), a formula used to adjust Social Security worker benefits for people who receive “non-covered pensions” and qualify for Social Security benefits based on other Social Security-covered earnings. The Government Pension Offset (GPO)
After passing the House, it must now be passed by the Senate before being presented to President Biden and signed into law. If this process is completed, over 2.8 million people will receive the benefits for which they have contributed. The bill has several Senate sponsors, but it must be supported by at least 60 senators in order to pass Congress.
It should not be a problem because it garnered 62 cosponsors last year, but things can change, and now that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is beginning the process to pass the bill, the time has come to “ensure.
Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point in their careers to work in public service.” Schumer explained.
But the tide looks to have shifted since last year. GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, who supported identical legislation last year, was less forthright in his support for the latest version of the bill, saying he was still “weighing” whether to vote for it next week.
He rationalized his shift in perspective by adding, “Nothing ever gets paid for, so if it’s more debt, I don’t know.”
He is, of course, alluding to the fact that the proposal would require additional funding for payments, which would have to come from the Social Security Trust funds, which are currently overburdened.
In fact, they have a date when they will be depleted, and the program would have to rely only on payroll taxes to provide pensions. According to the Congressional Budget Office, if these policies are passed and repealed, the federal deficit will rise by an estimated $195 billion over the next ten years.
Although that sounds horrible, the unfortunate reality is that it would only shorten the program’s length by about six months, which, given that we are contemplating the program’s termination, may be a little shortsighted. The data has been certified by the neutral Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
To put things into perspective, if the program goes bankrupt, it will only be able to pay around 79% of scheduled payments, cutting lifetime Social Security payouts by $25,000 for a typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033.
Will the Social Security Fairness Act pass the Senate?
As is customary, many conservative party members have strongly opposed the bill, citing cost, such as Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, who says, “Even for something that people consider to be a good cause, it shows a lack of concern for the future of the country, so I think it would be a big mistake.”
Others are less vehement in their criticism, such as Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, who observed that the program has overwhelming bipartisan support, but added that some Republicans want to see it “fixed in the context of a broader Social Security reform effort.”
But some are surprisingly on board with the bill, such as Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, who, along with many others, has pushed Schumer to bring it up for a vote, emphasizing that the current federal limitations “penalize families across the country who worked a public service job for part of their career with a separate pension.”
We’re talking about police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other public personnel who are penalized for doing their jobs.”
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