A bill that would expand Social Security benefits for nearly three million recipients has received bipartisan support, allowing it to be pushed through to the next stage of the legislative process.
On Thursday, lawmakers successfully used a discharge petition—a method of taking a bill out of committee and to the floor for consideration without a report from the committee—to advance the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate loopholes that deny payments being made to retirees who receive certain government pensions or other types of benefits.
The petition was filed by Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Garret Graves and received a total of 218 signatures—47 Republicans and 171 Democrats. It means that after seven legislative days, Graves and Spanberger will be able to request that Speaker Mike Johnson schedule a floor vote.
“Today is a major milestone made possible by tireless advocates who’ve made clear that Congress must act,” Spanberger and Graves said in a joint statement.
It is the first time a discharge petition has been used to advance a bill since 2015.
What Is The Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal rules known as the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who receive pension income from public roles in which they did not contribute to Social Security payroll taxes, despite having paid into the program through other work and qualifying for benefits. The WEP currently impacts approximately two million Social Security beneficiaries, according to Spanberger’s office.
The GPO is a provision that reduces spousal benefits for retired federal, state, and local government employees who did not pay into Social Security through payroll taxes and affects nearly 800,000 retirees.
If enacted near the beginning of fiscal year 2025, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it would cost the Social Security Administration (SSA) just shy of $196 billion over 10 years.
“From Virginia to Louisiana to everywhere else in America, millions of retired public servants have waited more than 40 years for their elected officials to tackle this fundamental issue of fairness,” the statement from Spanberger and Graves continues. “These retirees deserve the benefits they earned through their hard work—and they deserve to see the WEP and GPO eliminated.”
They hailed the bipartisan nature of the effort, but said that the work to get rid of the provisions is “far from over.”
“We will be dogged in making sure the Social Security Fairness Act passes in the U.S. House, passes in the U.S. Senate, and finally gets signed into law. We must get it done.”
