Bill Allows Firefighters, Police to Receive Social Security Benefits

Dec. 20—WASHINGTON — After a 40-year fight, thousands of Louisiana public employees with local and state pensions are set to get paid their full Social Security benefits, because the U.S. Senate early Saturday morning gave final legislative approval for two long-sought changes.

The Senate approved the legislation on a vote of 76-20 at 12:14 a.m. EST near the end of a marathon 14-hour Friday session, the last day of the 118th Congress. After approving the Social Security bill, the Senate backed continuing federal government operations until March, then went home for good. The 119th Congress, which was elected in November, will return to Washington on Jan. 3.

The bill was sent to President Joe Biden, who has indicated he will sign the Social Security Fairness Act into law.

"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," said U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, of Virginia, the chief sponsors of the legislation.

"State and local workers in Louisiana deserve the full Social Security benefits they've earned. Now they will get it," said U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. "This was a long overdue step."

About 94,000 Louisiana employees and retirees from public service jobs — 2.1 million nationwide — lost part or all of their Social Security benefits because of two provisions, the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.

Some state and municipal governments, including Louisiana's, did not pay Social Security taxes on the pensions for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public service workers. Many of those employees held jobs before or after their public service, or worked second jobs — such as teachers often take at night and during the summer — that contributed to Social Security.

The two provisions docked or effectively eliminated their Social Security benefits from those other nonpublic jobs.

The Windfall Elimination Provision, called WEP, reduces Social Security benefits by up to half the pension amount for people receiving pension income from jobs that didn't contribute Social Security payroll taxes.

The Government Pension Offset, or GPO, reduces benefits for survivors if the spouse had a pension that wasn't taxed for Social Security. The Social Security benefits can be cut by up to two-thirds of the public employee's pension.

Both provisions were added to the law in the early 1980s to help shore up ailing Social Security finances.

Almost from the beginning, public employees howled at the unfairness of the solution. Supporters of the bill contended the government was "stealing" the money public servants had contributed to the Social Security system.

Opponents to rolling back the two provisions cited the high cost. Removing the two provisions costs $196 billion, which could hasten insolvency of the fund that pays Social Security. If the fund goes insolvent in nine years, which is predicted if nothing is done to prevent it, then everyone will see a 20% to 25% reduction in benefits even if their employers paid the taxes throughout their career.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said that decrease works out to an average of about $4,000 per beneficiary per year.

"That's quite a stocking stuffer for seniors," Grassley said.

Over the years, opponents noted that Social Security pays benefits based on a formula that involves salaries and contributions but is not a dollar-for-dollar return on taxes paid. Opponents argued that public service employees were unfairly augmenting their retirements with Social Security benefits when they also had state or municipal pensions that had not paid into Social Security.

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that also many of those public employees earned less with their second jobs than with their regular jobs. But the formula that determines the amount of benefits a retiree receives recognizes only the job that contributed into the system. Because of the formula, the lower earnings of the second job resulted in "over generous" Social Security benefits to public servants.

The effected public workers countered their jobs that contributed to Social Security were separate from their public employment that did not pay taxes, thus retirement benefits were earned separately.

Legislation to roll back the two provisions have been filed in almost every Congress since the 1980s but gained traction only recently.

Graves and Spanberger, D-Virginia, came up with the wording of the legislation now headed to the White House.

They tried a bill that would update the law and the formula, but could not find enough support. When they shifted to just removing the provisions, a majority of the House members signed on.

But their Social Security Fairness Act couldn't clear a House committee. Graves and Spanberger then turned to a little used rule, called a "discharge petition," to force a vote on the floor. A discharge petition needs 218 signatures, a majority of the 435-seat House.

As they neared that number, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, announced he would use the rules available to leadership to schedule a floor vote. The House then left Washington to campaign for the November elections.

The effort then took a hit during a "pro forma" session, in which a skeleton crew keeps Congress officially open. On Election Day, the only two members in attendance, both part of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, many members of which opposed removing the provisions, voted to essentially kill the bill.

Upon returning to Washington, the House overturned the move and voted 327 to 75 in November to send the legislation to the Senate.

Scalise said Saturday, "As a longtime supporter of correcting the flawed WEP/GPO formula, I voted in favor of this bill in the House earlier this year, and am glad Congress finally fixed an issue that has harmed thousands of Louisiana teachers, first responders, and other public servants."

Sixty-one senators, both Democratic and Republican and including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, had signed on as cosponsors for a Senate bill that did the same thing. But some Republicans were opposed the legislation.

Weeks of negotiations went nowhere, and Schumer opted to avoid sending the bill through committee, where progress could have stalled. He announced last week that he would bring the legislation direct to the full Senate for a vote.

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