The House of Representatives has approved legislation designed to enhance Social Security benefits for certain retirees. This bipartisan initiative, spearheaded by Representatives Abigail Spanberger and Garret Graves, seeks to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). These regulations have diminished Social Security payments for approximately 3% of recipients, especially retired public workers such as police officers, educators, and firefighters.
As of December 2023, the WEP had an impact on about 2.1 million individuals, while the GPO affected benefits for 745,679 persons who receive Social Security as spouses, widows, or widowers while also obtaining pension payments. Spanberger and Graves stressed the importance of permitting Americans who have contributed to retire with dignity, characterizing the existing regulations as discriminatory. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare hailed the House vote as a “bipartisan achievement.” Nonetheless, opponents like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget project that the amendment could lead to an increase of $196 billion in federal deficits over the next ten years, potentially hastening the depletion of Social Security’s trust fund.
Proposal for Social Security benefits increase
The bill is now set to go to the Senate for ratification. If it clears the Senate, it will be forwarded to the President for enactment into law.
The modifications would apply to benefits payable after December 2023. Supporters contend that this legislation is fundamentally about fairness, with Spanberger and Graves asserting, “For over four decades, the Social Security trust funds have been artificially sustained by benefits wrongfully taken from millions of Americans, benefits that rightfully belong to their families. The time to rectify this injustice is now.”
The Senate faces a packed agenda in the upcoming weeks, and if the bill does not pass by January 3, when a new Congressional session begins, it will lapse, requiring supporters to restart the legislative process.
If the Social Security Fairness Act is enacted, it may increase benefits for 4.5 percent of all beneficiaries by 2025, with an estimated average annual uptick of roughly $7,300, based on a 2020 study by the Urban Institute. However, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the repeal could amplify federal deficits over a decade, creating additional fiscal pressures on the Social Security Trust Funds.
