Press Releases

Public servants in Louisiana (teachers, police, firefighters, etc.) are some of the most impacted victims of the infamous Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) – a 1980s-era flawed federal law that can result in massive cuts – including total elimination – to their Social Security payments.

The struggle to repeal WEP and GPO is decades old. After years of negotiations, legislation U.S. Congressman Garret Graves co-authored – H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021 – to fix these problems has reached over 290 cosponsors – triggering action to force Speaker Pelosi to schedule the bill for a vote before the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would fix this penalty, which punishes tens of thousands of Louisiana public servants.

If this legislation passes, Louisiana's dedicated public servants and their spouses or survivors will receive the full retirement benefits they deserve, including those who have already retired.

Graves released the following statement:

"The last thing in the world we need to be doing now is defunding teachers, firefighters, police officers and other local and state public servants. The far majority are underpaid. No one goes into public service to make big money. They do it to make a big difference. Teachers, police, firefighters, and countless local and state public servants are the crucial scaffolding of our society. The WEP and GPO are severe penalties that defund public servants of much of their lifetime of retirement earnings. After more than 40 years of efforts to change this law, we've reached a high-water mark of 293 cosponsors to our bill. Today's achievement is decades in the making and has remained a top priority of mine and thousands of Louisiana public servants. I am proud to see the effort from a bipartisan coalition of members, advocates, and retirees is going to fix this broken policy because it unfairly punishes our public servants. I have promised folks at home we would not stop until the leadership of the U.S. House brings the bill to the floor for a vote. We have rallied support for years to break through this logjam and get this overdue legislation enacted into law. It's time to make it right for the countless teachers, police officers, firefighters, emergency responders, and all the local and state public servants who are being wrongly penalized under current law."

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