Bill to repeal windfall elimination provision clears a key Senate hurdle

The Senate on Wednesday voted 73-27 to limit debate on legislation to repeal a controversial pair of tax provisions that impact the retirement benefits of some federal workers and other public servants, clearing the way for a final vote to pass the bill later this week.

The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) would repeal Social Security’s windfall elimination provision and government pension offset. The windfall elimination provision reduces the Social Security benefits of retired federal workers and other public servants who spent a portion of their careers in the private sector in addition to a federal, state or local government job where Social Security is not intended as an element of their retirement income, such as the Civil Service Retirement System. And the government pension offset reduces spousal and survivor Social Security benefits in families with retired government workers.

Despite broad bipartisan support for years, lawmakers struggled to advance the bill, until the dam finally broke this year, with bill sponsors Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., successfully filing a discharge petition to force a House vote on the legislation. The House last month passed the bill by a 327-75 vote.

Following through on a commitment he made last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., scheduled the procedural vote, needed to overcome a potential filibuster, Wednesday.

“Passing this fix right before Christmas would be a great gift to our retired firefighters, police officers, postal officers and more,” Schumer said. “[The WEP and GPO] are deeply unfair, and go against the American ideal of working hard, chipping in and then enjoying the retirement that you’ve earned.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., objected to the bill’s advancement without any Senate hearings on the legislation, as well as its price tag—the Congressional Budget Office projects the measure to cost $200 billion over the next 10 years and hasten the Social Security trust fund’s insolvency by six months.

“It sounds like motherhood and apple pie—the Social Security Fairness Act—who could be against Social Security fairness?” he said. “The fact of the matter is the policy does address a challenge with Social Security for a single-digit percentage of people who have a pension and are not getting exactly what they should back. So it’s something we need to fix, but this is not the way to fix it.”

But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, noted that she has been holding hearings on the two tax provisions dating back more than two decades. And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said he saw firsthand how some public servants are penalized for spending a portion of their career in public service before he ran for office.

“Millions of teachers, firefighters, police officers and I worked in a public hospital for the uninsured, so I would also add nurses, technicians, lab techs and janitors, they all expect us to fulfill this promise and they are watching today,” Cassidy said. “I’m filled with hope that the Senate will pass the Social Security Fairness Act to finally stop punishing them for having elected to serve our communities. We can fix a broken system that has unfairly harmed them for almost 30 years.”