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Reaching more than 290 cosponsors, the Social Security Fairness Act (HR 82) entered an important stage in its path toward a possible full floor vote after the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill by voice vote on Tuesday.
The proposed legislation would repeal the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO). The WEP and GPO provisions reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for those who are covered by a government (federal, state or local)-sponsored guaranteed pension plan, such as federal employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), secured 299 co-sponsors which now allows it to be considered for a floor vote under the Consensus Calendar process in the House rules.
A member of Congress may file a motion with the House Clerk to place their legislation on the Consensus Calendar once their legislation has accumulated at least 290 cosponsors. If the legislation maintains at least 290 cosponsors for 25 legislative days, and the committee of jurisdiction does not report the legislation, it will be placed on the Consensus Calendar. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the authority to bring legislation on the Consensus Calendar to the floor for a vote before the full House of Representatives.
Davis filed a motion on July 15, 2022, to place the Social Security Fairness Act on the Consensus Calendar. The 25-days-on-the-Calendar requirement for the legislation was met Tues, Sept. 22, 2022. Davis is urging Speaker Pelosi and House leadership to allow an immediate vote on this legislation.
“Our bipartisan ‘Social Security Fairness Act’ has reached another important legislative milestone,” said Davis on Tuesday. “In the next few days, we will have met the Consensus Calendar requirements outlined in the House. Speaker Pelosi must allow a vote. The millions of public service workers across this country who are being unfairly punished by the Social Security Act deserve it. That’s why a bipartisan supermajority of the House is cosponsoring our bill. Let’s get this done.”
NARFE Support
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) this week issued a statement of support for the legislation.
WEP and GPO have deprived public servants of their full Social Security benefits for far too long. Federal workers, teachers, police officers, firefighters and others earned pensions through their service, and earned Social Security benefits separately through their or their spouses’ private-sector—or other covered—employment,” said NARFE National President Ken Thomas. “Yet those earned Social Security benefits are reduced simply because they earned their public sector pension.”
“NARFE has pressed for repeal of these onerous penalties for decades, ” Thomas said. “Bills have been introduced each Congress, often accumulating cosponsors from a majority of House members. Yet not once has the bill been considered by committee—until today. By approving the Social Security Fairness Act, the House Committee on Ways and Means has made more progress on this issue than has ever occurred. That is a real achievement.”
The full text of the bill can be found here.
There is a similar bill in the Senate proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) with 42 cosponsors.