IFPTE Continues Pushing Congressional Passage and Enactment of Social Security Fairness Act, Which Repeals WEP and GPO
After the House of Representatives passed the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) with overwhelming bipartisan support, IFPTE is urging the U.S. Senate to do the same and restore Social Security benefits for some 2.7 million Americans who have already paid for those benefits. The decisive margin in the House of Representatives, 327 votes in favor of passage to 75 - is a result of the combined and committed efforts of labor unions, retirees, and allied organizations to correct an unfair denial of benefits that came into existence through in the 1983 Social Security Refinancing Act in the case of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and through the Social Security Amendments of 1977 in the case of the Government Pension Offset.
IFPTE also joined two letters to the Senate, one organized by the Federal-Postal Coalition, and another letter that includes unions and was organized by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), urging the Senate to pass the Social Security Fairness Act this year before the Senate adjourns. Similar to the House, the bill has strong bipartisan support with Senator Sherrod Brown’s identical companion bill, S. 597, having 62 cosponsors.
Read IFPTE’s letter urging Senate passage of the Social Security Fairness Act here.