Congress

Lawmakers file discharge petition, aiming to force floor vote on WEP, GPO bill

The discharge petition the lawmakers filed requires 218 signatures — a simple House majority — to force a floor vote, possibly ending WEP and GPO for good.

Drew Friedman@dfriedmanWFED

September 10, 2024 3:08 pm

3 min read

After years of advocating, a bill to repeal two benefits-reducing provisions of Social Security appears closer than ever to the finish line.

Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.) officially filed a discharge petition Tuesday morning, aiming to push their Social Security Fairness Act to a House floor vote.

The legislation looks to repeal two Social Security provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — which for decades have reduced and in some cases eliminated Social Security benefits for certain federal retirees and other public servants, as well as their spouses, widows and widowers.

Since Spanberger and Graves reintroduced the bill in January 2023 for the 118th Congress, the bipartisan legislation has gained 326 House cosponsors, making it one of the most highly supported bills in all of Congress. The discharge petition that the lawmakers filed this week requires 218 signatures — a simple House majority — to force a floor vote.

“We cannot drag our feet on addressing this basic issue of fairness,” Spanberger and Graves said in a press statement Tuesday. “With broad support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, we must use every mechanism available to us to finally right this wrong.”

While the members have been pushing for months for a vote on the House bill, the Senate companion bill to the Social Security Fairness Act has similarly received growing attention. In August, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the original cosponsors of the bill, urged Senate leaders to move the legislation to a floor vote as well.

“Our Social Security Fairness Act now has a total of 62 bipartisan cosponsors, indicating it is strongly positioned to overcome a filibuster and move quickly,” the pair of lawmakers wrote in an Aug. 7 letter. “It is clear to a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate and our constituents that these provisions are patently unfair and must be repealed.”

Specifically, WEP reduces Social Security benefits for anyone who receives an annuity from their time spent working in government, but who also worked in a Social Security-covered job, usually a private sector job. WEP can reduce benefits by nearly $600 per month, and it impacts roughly two million individuals, including federal employees and retirees in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

GPO, on the other hand, impacts Social Security benefits for the spouses, widows or widowers of any individual who receives a government pension. If two-thirds of the pension is higher than the value of the Social Security payment, then GPO will fully eliminate the benefit.

Since the reintroduction of the Social Security Fairness Act this Congress, both chambers have held multiple hearings to consider the bill and other potential alternatives to addressing reforms for WEP and GPO.

Though the Social Security Fairness Act has seen the most support on Capitol Hill, it isn’t the only pending legislation aiming to address the WEP and GPO. Other lawmakers have introduced bills looking to keep the two provisions intact and reform their calculations, rather than fully repealing them.

The Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act and the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act, both introduced this Congress, would operate slightly differently from one another, but either bill would provide at least some relief to CSRS annuitants.

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), a long-time advocate of a full repeal of WEP and GPO, said the two provisions are unfair to public servants, and cause financial hardship and uncertainty in retirement. NARFE is now urging all House lawmakers to sign the discharge petition.

“With the clock ticking on additional action prior to the election and the close of Congress, it is now time for the 326 cosponsors who support this bill to show their voters they mean what they say,” NARFE National President William Shackelford wrote Monday in a letter addressed to House members. “These penalties result in thousands of dollars in lost benefits every year simply because these workers chose to serve their nation, state or local community.”