Press Releases

U.S. Congressman Garret Graves (R-LA), co-author of H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, made the following statement in response to the $195.6 billion Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of future Social Security graft at the expense of public service retirees.

“The CBO has confirmed: if H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, is not signed into law this year, $195.6 billion in Social Security benefits will be stolen from public service retirees over the next decade. And since CBO only looks forward, not in the past, it is staggering to think of the literal hundreds of billions stolen from public service retirees over the last 40 years when they needed it most. We have to make it right and ensure that our teachers, police officers, firefighters and others receive the Social Security benefits they earned during their careers serving the public. These folks sacrificed so much to serve us. How can we continue to sacrifice them? Members need to sign our discharge petition to bring H.R. 82 to the floor for a vote now,” said Graves.

BACKGROUND

Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) reintroduced the Social Security Fairness Act in January 2023 at the start of the 118th Congress. In November 2023, Graves and Spanberger urged the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee to hold a hearing on reforms to the WEP and GPO — and a hearing was held later that month. In March 2024, the lawmakers urged the Committee to take the next step to eliminate the WEP and GPO by holding a markup on their bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act. Graves and Spanberger have consistently pushed for a vote on the bill.

Currently, the WEP reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. For example, educators who do not earn Social Security in public schools but who work part-time or during the summer in jobs covered by Social Security have reduced benefits, even though they pay into the system just like others. Likewise, the GPO affects the spousal benefits of people who work as federal, state, or local government employees — including police officers, firefighters, and educators — if the job is not covered by Social Security. The GPO reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension.

The WEP currently impacts approximately 2 million Social Security beneficiaries, and the GPO impacts nearly 800,000 retirees.

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