The effort to repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision (GPO/WEP) – a long-time FMA issue brief – continues to gain significant momentum in the 118th Congress. Barely a week after Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) filed the discharge petition to require a vote on the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), the petition garnered the 218 signatures necessary. H.R. 82 has 329 cosponsors and will finally get a vote. The earliest the bill can be called for a vote is in November.

“FMA has long pushed for the repeal of these odious provisions that callously reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of public servants and their beneficiaries,” FMA National President Craig Carter wrote. “This important bill is needed to prevent the unjust withholding of nearly $200 billion from these civil servants in the next ten years, and 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. Support has never been greater for the overdue repeal of both the GPO and WEP, and it is vital to act now.”

Meanwhile, the Senate version (S. 597) surpassed the 60-cosponsor threshold – enough votes to override a filibuster.

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.