JUST NOW: Spanberger’s Bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act Clears Procedural Hurdle, Will Soon Receive Vote on U.S. Senate Floor to Provide Long Overdue Fairness to Retired Virginia Police Officers, Firefighters, & Government Employees

The Congresswoman’s Bipartisan “Social Security Fairness Act” Would Eliminate Two Provisions of the “Social Security Act” That Unfairly Reduce Earned Retirement Benefits for Nearly 2.5 Million Americans — Including More Than 50,000 Virginians

For More than 40 Years, Retired Public Servants Have Pushed for this Fix

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate today voted to proceed toward a final vote on U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger’s Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).

According to a nonpartisan 2024 report, the WEP denies earned benefits to more than 42,000 Virginians, and the GPO hurts approximately 3,700 Virginians. Additionally, more than 4,000 Virginia retirees are impacted by both the WEP and the GPO. Earlier this year, more than 2,700 retirees shared their personal stories about the harmful impacts of the WEP and GPO with Spanberger.

“For more than four decades, retired police officers, firefighters, and federal employees in Virginia and across our country who contributed to Social Security and devoted themselves to service are being denied the retirement security they thought promised. For more than four decades, Virginians I serve have urged Congress to put an end to this theft,” said Spanberger. “They were forced to wait far too long. But now, the U.S. Senate has the opportunity to finally remove these misguided provisions.”

Spanberger continued, “We have the opportunity to deliver the benefits earned by every police officer who worked a second job to make ends meet, every firefighter who began a second career to support their families after retiring, and every widow who is denied survivor benefits she would have earned — if not for choosing to serve her community. Congress cannot allow these Americans to wait another 40 years for fairness.”

The WEP and GPO were added to the Social Security Act in 1983. These two provisions reduce or eliminate retirement benefits for more than 2.4 million Americans who devoted much of their careers to public service — including police officers, firefighters, educators, and federal, state, and local government employees.

BACKGROUND

Spanberger has worked tirelessly to move her legislation through Congress. Last month ­— after Spanberger and U.S. Representative Garret Graves (R-LA-06) secured the required 218 signatures on their discharge petition to force a vote on their Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the legislation and send it to the U.S. Senate.

Spanberger and Graves reintroduced the Social Security Fairness Act in January 2023 at the start of the 118th Congress. In November 2023, Spanberger and Graves 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. Spanberger and Graves 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 for enough quarters to receive benefits. 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 — often offsetting benefits entirely.

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