WASHINGTON – Tonight, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) celebrated the Senate’s passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, which will ensure millions of retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public servants receive full Social Security benefits. Senator Coons is a proud cosponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act.
This legislation, which passed by a bipartisan vote of 76-20 in the Senate, will repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), two provisions that reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for public-sector employees who are receiving certain pensions.
“Every American who pays into Social Security deserves to receive their full benefit on retirement,” said Senator Coons. “There’s no reason that the teachers who help our kids learn or the firefighters who keep us safe should see their Social Security payments reduced, just because they’re also entitled to a hard-earned pension. Tonight, I proudly voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act and restore full Social Security benefits to over 4,000 retirees living in Delaware and over 2 million people across the country. I’m thrilled that the Social Security Fairness Act is on its way to the president’s desk, and I’m grateful for Senator Brown’s leadership on this bill and on all the issues important to working people that he’s championed throughout his career.”
Currently, retired public servants can be prevented from receiving full Social Security benefits due to two laws from the 1970s and 1980s – the WEP and GPO, respectively. The WEP reduces benefits for individuals who also receive a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. For example, public school teachers who don’t pay into Society Security during the school year, but need to take on part-time or summer jobs to make ends meet, will see their Social Security benefits reduced. The GPO works in a similar fashion, affecting spousal or widow(er) benefits for people who work in government jobs where the job is not covered by Social Security. While these provisions were intended to bring accountability to government benefits, they resulted in the unfair penalization of more than 2 million public servants.
The Social Security Fairness Act, introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), is one of the most widely supported pieces of legislation in Congress this year. Last month, the House of Representatives passed the bill in a vote of 327 to 75, led by Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.).