The Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act late Friday by an overwhelming 76-20 majority, moving the bill to the White House to be signed by the president.
The bill was previously passed by the House of Representatives in November and saw rare bipartisan support from lawmakers.
The Social Security Fairness Act will remove the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which limit benefits for 2.8 million workers who receive a public pension. The WEP reduces Social Security benefits for those who earn income from noncovered pensions, while the GPO regulates spousal benefits for workers with noncovered pensions.
Supporters of the bill had previously criticized the WEP and GPO for unfairly targeting public pensioners by reducing their earned Social Security benefits for jobs they take outside of non-covered employment, and for spouses entitled to benefits from state, local, and federal government employees like teachers and police officers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a supporter of the bill, celebrated its passing in a statement on Friday. “Tonight, the Senate finally corrects a fifty-year mistake by passing the Social Security Fairness Act,” he said. “Millions of retired teachers and firefighters and letter carriers and state and local workers have waited decades for this moment. No longer will public retirees see their hard-earned social security benefits robbed from them, thanks to this bill.”
Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Garret Graves (R-LA), who reintroduced the bill to Congress in January 2023, praised Democratic and Republican lawmakers for the bilateral support.
“Finally, Congress showed up for the millions of Americans — police officers, firefighters, teachers, federal employees, and other local and state public servants — who worked a second job to care for their families or began a second career to afford to live,” both reps. said in a statement. “Congress showed up for the hundreds of thousands of widows and widowers who are denied their spouses’ Social Security benefits while grappling with their loss.”
Critics of the bill worry that it could rush Social Security’s insolvency, already projected to be depleted by 2033, by six months. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the act could cost the U.S. $196 billion over the next decade.
“We caved to the pressure of the moment instead of doing this on a sustainable basis,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), following the vote.
Senators passed the bill after eliminating an amendment introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that would gradually raise the full retirement age from 67 to 70 over 12 years to offset the bill’s cost.
“If we give new people more money, we have to take it from somewhere. We have to either borrow it or print it, but it has to come from somewhere,” he said in introducing the amendment. “You can’t just push the bankruptcy of Social Security and say, ‘Well, yeah, it will go bankrupt in about nine years but maybe I won’t be here. Shouldn’t we care about the future of Social Security?”
The bill will now head to President Joe Biden, where he is likely to sign it into law. Once signed, the legislation’s effective date includes Social Security benefits for months after December 2023, according to text of the bill.
SEE ALSO:
Initial 2026 Social Security COLA Prediction: 2.5%
Key Changes May Come in Latest Social Security Bill
Group Warns on ‘Cost of Doing Nothing’ About Social Security
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.
