In the last few weeks of the current Congress, senators are pushing for a Social Security bill that would increase benefits for government workers and their families.
This bill has support from both parties. Older Americans who get public pensions, like teachers, police officers, and government workers, usually get less from Social Security, if they get any at all.
Also, getting a public pension does not stop someone from getting Social Security, but payments might be greatly reduced because of the law.
People who have worked in certain types of jobs and paid payroll taxes for about ten years are usually eligible for Social Security.
A lot of people who work in the public sector do not pay into Social Security for long enough to be eligible, but some people do get benefits because they have second jobs or careers in the private sector.
The Social Security Fairness Act would get rid of two rules in order to raise benefits for public employees who have paid into the system. These rules are the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).
Social Security benefits will increase beyond the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for next year
The people who sponsored the bill say that getting rid of the primary windfall provision would help about 2 million people whose benefits are cut because they get government pensions.
Another 800,000 people would benefit from getting rid of the other provision, which affects the benefits of surviving spouses who get pensions. The Social Security Fairness Act was passed by the House last week with a vote of 327 to 75.
People who support it say that it will improve Social Security by making sure that public sector workers get the benefits they are entitled to.
It was also said in an explanation of the House bill that the changes would apply to benefits due after December 2023. The bill also has a lot of support in the Senate, with over 60 senators signing on to it.
As a result, the future of the measure is still unknown. Supporters of the act want to get it passed during this useless congressional session because they are sure that President Joe Biden will sign it.
They can not say the same thing about Donald Trump, who will be president in 2017. Shannon Benton, who is the executive director of the Senior Citizens League, says that her group has been working for decades to get these clauses taken out.
Over the next ten years, how much will the Social Security Fairness Act cost?
The proposal would cost $196 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is against it, says it would add about six months to the time when Social Security will run out of money.
What should they call this bill? The Social Security Unfairness Act, because it makes a Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) so that some beneficiaries can get twice as much money in retirement, according to a statement from Committee Chairwoman Maya Mac Guineas.
But because of complicated politics at the end of the year, the act’s passage is not a sure thing. They are not in town the week of Thanksgiving and the first few days of Christmas.
Things like the Social Security Fairness Act have only three weeks left to be passed.
Money has been told by someone who knows how the legislative process works that the Social Security Fairness Act probably will not be voted on as a stand-alone bill because the Democratic leadership in the Senate is focused on confirming Biden’s judicial candidates with only a short time left in the session.
There is still hope that it could be passed in another way, though.
According to the source, supporters and members of Congress see the act as part of a larger set of laws, either a defense authorization measure or a government appropriations bill that Congress needs to pass to avoid a shutdown.
If the Social Security Fairness Act does not get passed by this Congress, the legislative process will have to start all over again the following year. Trump takes office on January 20.
