On Tuesday, November 12, the House of Representatives passed the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), FMA-endorsed legislation that would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), passed by a vote of 327-75.

FMA National President Craig Carter celebrated the momentous accomplishment, saying, “On behalf of the managers and supervisors currently serving or retired from the federal government, and whose interests are represented by the Federal Managers Association (FMA), we applaud the House of Representatives for voting to bring fairness to millions of Social Security beneficiaries. The resounding and momentous bipartisan vote on the House floor comes after decades of effort to repeal these odious provisions that callously reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of public servants and their beneficiaries.”

“This important bill is needed to prevent the unjust withholding of nearly $200 billion from these civil servants in the next ten years,” Carter said. “It is difficult to put into words the tragedy of the benefits that have been earned but kept from these public servants dating back to the 1980s. We are grateful for the tireless work of Reps. Graves and Spanberger, and we are thrilled with their successful push in the House. We urge the Senate to consider this bill in the remaining days of the 118th Congress to provide this long-overdue relief for the public servants impacted by the GPO and WEP. It is time to retire these provisions to the dustbin of history for the good of all civil servants who have been deprived of what they’ve earned for far too long.”

Regrettably, time is running out for the Senate to act in the 118th Congress. If it is not agreed to in the Senate, and signed into law, the repeal effort will need to start over in the new session, which begins on January 3, 2025.

The Social Security Government Pension Offset law prevents government retirees who receive a government pension, but did not pay into Social Security, from collecting both a government annuity based on their own work, and Social Security benefits based on their spouse's work record. This is unfair to many spouses, especially widows, who often lose the Social Security protection their spouse provided for them. Under current law, a Social Security widow’s benefit is reduced by $2 for every $3 earned if the widow is eligible for a pension based on a public sector job that was not covered by Social Security. According to the Congressional Research Service, as of December 2022, more than 730,000 Social Security beneficiaries had their benefits reduced by the GPO, with 52 percent being widows. No such offset affects spouses receiving pensions from private sector employers.

The Windfall Elimination Provision is another inequity that disadvantages many federal retirees receiving Social Security benefits and a federal pension. It reduces the Social Security benefits federal retirees receive based on the number of years they served in a federal position that did not require their payment of Social Security taxes. According to the Congressional Research Service, as of December 2022, the WEP impacts approximately two million people – roughly 3 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries.