On June 21, 2023, Richard Neal (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act of 2023 (H.R. 4260). The goal of the legislation, endorsed by FMA, is to amend the Social Security Act, specifically the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).

The goal of the WEP is to regulate the benefits received by Social Security beneficiaries who may have spent time working in the private sector, and not fully contributed to Social Security. The reasoning behind this is that the goal of Social Security is only intended to be a partial portion of a beneficiary’s initial salary. The result, however, is that those under the WEP only receive $150 a month in relief, which has the potential to provide inadequate provisions for many recipients.

Congressman Neal’s office states, “Originally, the WEP was intended to equalize the Social Security benefit formula for workers with similar earnings histories, both inside and outside of the Social Security system. However, in practice, it unfairly penalizes many public employees.” This is the grounds on which he has proposed his new legislation to amend the WEP.

The new bill would introduce a formula for calculating recipient benefits to make their payments proportional to their currently covered earnings shares. There is also a guarantee in the provision that ensures no benefit cuts will be made to the existing policies in place for both current and future retirees.

While FMA has endorsed H.R. 4260 to mitigate the effect of the WEP, we are also continuing to build support for the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) which would eliminate the WEP and the Government Pension Offset altogether. H.R. 82 has 289 bipartisan cosponsors.

To follow the status of both bills, click here.