WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Tuesday night to eliminate provisions that docked Social Security benefits for public employees with pensions.
The House voted 327 to 75 to approve The Social Security Fairness Act, HR 82, by U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia.
The legislation would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset sections of the Social Security law that curb the benefits for about 2.8 million public employees nationwide, including 90,000 in Louisiana.
The bill now goes to the Senate. Spanberger said enough senators have said they will support HR 82 for the legislation to pass in the upper chamber.
Opponents said removing the two provisions would cost too much and would quicken the day that the trust fund that pays the benefits will go insolvent, which is estimated to be in 10 years.
Earlier in the day, Rep. Andy Harris, the Maryland Republican who heads the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, neutralized the action he and another member passed on Election Day that had killed the legislation. His motion Tuesday afternoon freed the bill for a vote Tuesday night.
“This has been 40 years of treating people different,” Graves said on the House floor. “We need to treat them fairly, respectfully, and that means by not treating them differently, discriminating against them.”
Twenty-six states opted not to take out Social Security taxes for their public employees who were covered by their government pensions. The law included the two provisions in 1983 on the theory that some public employees were receiving a windfall from Social Security because they also were receiving a pension that was not taxed.
Spanberger said what really happened was the firefighters with a second job, police who entered private employment after finishing their law enforcement service, and teachers who worked over the summer, did not receive the full amount of the benefits that they paid into Social Security for their employment in the private sector.
Upon retirement, their Social Security benefits are docked by what their pensions pay, meaning they are unable to collect some or all of their Social Security benefits.
“They are all receiving a fraction of their earned Social Security benefits,” Spanberger said.
Efforts over the past 40 years have been made to change those Social Security policies. Graves and Spanberger, both leaving Congress at the end of the year, were able to cobble together a bill that overcame the opposition to the changes.
“Congress frequently falls short,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, “Rarely do we have an opportunity to set things right. … Tonight we can repeal the unrighteous law.”
Jason Smith, R-Missouri and chair of Ways & Means, said 60% of the workers whose benefits are adjusted are from just 10 states. He also said he was concerned that the Congressional Budget Office had calculated thar removing the two provisions would cost the trust fund $196 billion over a decade and would expedite the predicted insolvency of the trust fund.
When that happens, Smith pointed out that millions of Social Security beneficiaries who paid taxes into the fund for all their employment as well as those covered by the bill will see a 20% to 25% decrease in benefits.
Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wisconsin, asked his colleagues not to vote for the measure that cost nearly $200 billion and have that vote be the first one recorded after an election in which Republicans promised to reduce government spending.