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Social Security Fairness Act Passes House
The House passed a bipartisan bill to repeal Social Security benefit reductions for pensioners. It now heads to the Senate with enough support for passage.
English
United States
PoliticsUs PoliticsHealthLabour MarketLegislationReformRetirementSocial Security
House Of RepresentativesU.s. SenateCongressional Research Service
Abigail SpanbergerGarret Graves
- What is the current status of the bill?
- The House of Representatives passed the bill with a significant majority (327 votes). It now moves to the Senate, where it has enough co-sponsors (62) to likely pass and proceed to the President for signing into law.
- How many people were affected by WEP and GPO in 2023?
- Approximately 2.1 million Social Security beneficiaries were affected by WEP, and 745,679 by GPO as of December 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service. The bill's passage would eliminate these reductions for future beneficiaries.
- What factors suggest the bill's likelihood of becoming law?
- The bill's bipartisan support, with co-leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties, suggests a strong likelihood of becoming law. The elimination of these long-standing provisions is expected to provide significant financial relief to many retirees.
- What are the main goals of the Social Security Fairness Act?
- The Social Security Fairness Act aims to repeal the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO). These provisions reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive pensions from other sources, disproportionately affecting public servants.
- How do the WEP and GPO provisions affect Social Security beneficiaries?
- WEP reduces benefits for individuals who worked in jobs without Social Security payroll taxes and now receive pensions. GPO reduces benefits for spouses and widows/widowers receiving pensions. Both disproportionately impact retired public servants.