Spanberger, Graves Host Press Conference to Urge Lawmakers to Sign Discharge Petition for Social Security Fairness Act, Join National Advocates & Retirees Calling for WEP & GPO Repeal

The Duo Only Need 5 More Signatures on their Discharge Petition to Force a Vote on the U.S. House Floor on their Legislation to Eliminate the WEP & GPO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) and Garret Graves (R-LA-06) today hosted a press conference alongside Americans who are currently being denied their hard-earned retirement benefits and retired police officers, firefighters, letter carriers, government employees, and educators to urge more Members of Congress to sign their discharge petition for the Social Security Fairness Act — which currently has 213 signatures.

Spanberger and Graves last week filed a discharge petition to force a vote on the U.S. House floor on their bipartisan legislation that would eliminate both the WEP and the GPO, two provisions added to the Social Security Act in 1983 that unfairly reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for approximately 2.8 million Americans who’ve devoted much of their careers to public service — including police officers, firefighters, educators, and federal, state, and local government employees. The lawmakers only need 5 more signatures to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on their bipartisan to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).

Spanberger and Graves were joined by U.S. Representatives Greg Landsman (D-OH-01) and Mike Garcia (R-CA-27). Additionally, they were joined by representatives from public employee advocacy organizations. Click here to watch a recording of the full event.

“It is an honor to work alongside my colleague and friend, Garret Graves, to carry this bill in Congress. I am proud that we have made more progress on this effort than ever before,” said Spanberger. “Since I first came to Congress, I’ve heard from literally thousands of Virginians who are being denied the full retirement benefits they earned and deserve. These Americans shouldn’t have their retirement benefits slashed — and in some cases altogether eliminated — just because they chose to dedicate part of their careers to serving our communities. We have worked for years to urge House leadership to take real action on this a basic issue of fairness. But now, we’re going to make it happen on our own. More than ever before, Democrats and Republicans have rallied together to support this long-overdue reform.”

“Congress is broken. It’s an incredibly dysfunctional place, but I’ve loved watching what’s happened on this whole initiative. On a bipartisan basis, we have taken on something that is completely unjust — that has been going on for over four decades. You have some of the most important contributors to our communities that are being discriminated against. Why in the world would you want to be a police officer if your own government is telling you that you’re not worthy, you’re not comparable, you shouldn’t have parity in the workforce — it’s unjust,” said Graves. “People from the very left of Congress to the very, very right that don’t agree on a damn thing, it’s great to see folks uniting and fixing something that’s been unjust.”

“I want to thank Garret and Abigail for their incredible leadership. I was a teacher; my parents are teachers. I know how important — and difficult — these jobs are. At city hall, I watched our police and firefighters do incredible work and saw how hard they work. Our public employees work their tails off on behalf of us — and they pay into Social Security,” said Landsman. “This bill just gives their money back to them. They earned it, but the government has been sitting on their money for decades. It’s time to give it back to them. It will make a huge difference in their lives, and this Congress is very close to making a big difference in the lives of our public teachers, firefighters, police officers, our letter carriers — you name it.”

“I want to thank Abigail and Garret for their leadership, not only for this press conference, but on this issue, too, to effectively kill this prehistoric and what is otherwise a dinosaur policy that we should have repealed a long time ago. The Windfall Elimination Provision is taking advantage of people who are working multiple careers and become subject to this provision — teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, the people that we should be incentivizing to work in our communities, those who provide us the security blankets for our neighborhoods, teach our kids, deliver our mail with the letter carriers. These are the people that are most affected by this,” said Garcia. “This is literally the federal government withholding about $200 billion of paid-into money into the Social Security program that should be in the pockets of these folks and not in the pockets of bureaucrats in Washington.”

Additional speakers included Peter Andreyev, Area Vice President, National Association of Police Organizations; Josh Fannon, President, Baltimore Fire Officers Association (IAFF Local 964), Brian Renfroe, President, National Association of Letter Carriers; Mark Dimondstein, President, American Postal Workers Union; Lois Carson, President, Ohio Association of Public School Employees; John Hatton, Staff VP for Policy and Programs, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association; Ottis Johnson, Vice President, American Federation of Government Employees; Becky Pringle, President, National Education Association; and Dan Montgomery, President, Illinois Federation of Teachers.

“Thank you, Representative Spanberger and Representative Graves, for your tireless efforts to pass the Social Security Fairness Act and your dedication to restoring security of retirement of America’s public servants. The GPO and the WEP have been harming the retirement security of our nation’s police officers by taking away hard-earned and much-needed benefits simply because they chose a public service profession that mandates early retirement,” said Peter Andreyev, Area Vice President, National Association of Police Organizations. “In recent years, the GPO and the WEP have been used to prolong the life of the Social Security trust fund on the backs of our nation’s public servants who are seeing cuts across the board to their retirement benefits. By totally repealing both the GPO and the WEP, the Social Security Fairness Act will preserve the retirement security of those who selfishly serve and protect our communities.”

“We work our careers one day at a time, we wake up in the morning and we put on our uniform pants one leg at a time, and then we go on to perform heroic acts of bravery every day in service to other people. We never know when we go into work if today is going to be the day when we’re going to find ourselves pinned under an assailant’s gunfire or trapped in a raging inferno, not knowing the way out. But that’s our workplace. After several decades of that, our bodies are left broken, and our minds are left scarred from the things that we’ve seen. And it becomes time to retire with dignity. Time to collect those Social Security benefits that we paid for over our lifetime. That’s when the government says, ‘Not so fast.’ The WEP and GPO say, ‘We can steal from you,’” said Josh Fannon, President, Baltimore Fire Officers Association (IAFF Local 964). “Representative Spanberger and Representative Graves believe theft is wrong. Representatives Garcia and Landsman believe theft is wrong. And that’s why they are championing the Social Security Fairness Act. It’s time to do the right thing and repeal the WEP and the GPO so that public servants can retire with the dignity that they deserve and with the benefits that they earned through their sweat and their blood and their labor.”

“Thank you, Congresswoman Spanberger and Congressman Graves. You’ve been true champions for this issue, and we built a lot of momentum and we’re in a really good place. What, to me, is most unfair is that the people that are victimized by this grossly unfair provision in the law are those like my members that are dedicated civil servants are public servants,” said Brian Renfroe, President, National Association of Letter Carriers. “On a personal note, I recently lost my father who was a retired letter carrier, a civil service retiree, a member of my union who had his benefits unfairly reduced by these provisions. So, this hits home to me personally. As I travel around the country and talk to our members, 80,000 of which are retirees, I often hear stories about how this has impacted them and their families. Let’s finally pass this bill.”

“We want to thank Congressman Graves, Congresswoman Spanberger, and all the cosponsors of this bill, but particularly those who are leading it for your determination. We’ve had people punished by up to two thirds of their earned Social Security benefits — think about what that means for people’s lives,” said Mark Dimondstein, President, American Postal Workers Union. “We’re really proud and pleased that we’re at the cusp of finally, finally righting a wrong and at least getting some real justice going forward, stopping the theft, stopping the raid on our pensions, and letting those civil service retirees live their retirement in the dignity and the financial security that their work has earned.”

“My husband and I both worked public jobs. We paid into Social Security working in the private industry, as well. My husband started working at the age of 15 and he died at the age of 50. He worked two jobs to make sure that I would always have a roof over my head,” said Lois Carson, President, Ohio Association of Public School Employees. “When he died, my pension from his private retirement system, which was the City of Columbus, was $735 a month. That’s it. I couldn’t get his Social Security because we both work under the WEP and the GPO. I work and I still work because I need to work because I have a daughter who has MS and a grandson who live very close to me. So, I continue to work after 37 years because if I retire, I’m going to lose half of my funding because of this law. At the end of the day, it impacts people who look like me, who suffer like me, and who continue to work way past the age of retirement because we are getting screwed by this law.”

“We’ve had a lot of success recently, making more progress than ever. That success is a testament to your leadership, Congressman Graves and Congresswoman Spanberger, and particularly with their terms expiring, the fact that they’re still here fighting this fight now is a testament to their dedication to their constituents,” said John Hatton, Staff VP for Policy and Programs, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. “NARFE represents federal employees and retirees — a big portion of those who are impacted by WEP and GPO. That includes retired VA nurses, retired postal workers, federal law enforcement, many civilians who go and work for the Department of Defense, many of whom used to be Veterans and then continued their service at the DoD, at Postal Service, and the like. They earned and paid into Social Security through separate work, but when it comes time to collect, they get less because they serve their communities, their state, their country. And that’s just wrong. Passing this bill would bring valuable, needed relief for impoverished widows and restore what millions of public servants have rightfully earned.”

“I want to thank Representatives Graves and Spanberger for leading the effort in the House to end this unfair penalty — and it is a penalty. It’s time for Congress to repeal these unfair penalties,” said Ottis Johnson, Vice President, American Federation of Government Employees. “We should eliminate the WEP and GPO because it’s the right thing to do for our people directly harmed. But it will also lift the heavy burden off the workers at Social Security Administration allowing the agency to better serve the public. We support the discharge pension to bring this wildly popular bipartisan legislation to a vote.”

“I want to thank Congresswoman Spanberger and Congressman Graves not just for their leadership, but also for their fierce determination to keep fighting for the public service workers in this country, bringing us ever closer to fully repealing GPO and WEP. These provisions actually damage the education profession, making it harder to attract and to retain educators. That means that we’re hurting our students, too. These unjust penalties, especially GPO, disproportionately affect women and people of color who face poverty in retirement because of it,” said Becky Pringle, President, National Education Association. “One of our NEA members came into the profession after earning her degree at the age of 43. But her decision to teach, to serve our students means that she will lose much of her Social Security benefits that she earned making a living and putting herself through school. We all know that is wrong. Another one of our educators retired after 35 years of teaching, lost her husband, and then found out that she wasn’t entitled to survivor benefits that he had earned after 30 years of payment into the Social Security system. It was devastating and it was wrong.”

“I want to thank Representatives Spanberger and Graves for their dogged leadership on this issue. You know it in every statehouse in America and it’s true in the capital, tough issues to resolve, tough bills need champions who are going to fight for this. So, we thank you for that. When you become a teacher, no one says to you, ‘Oh, by the way, that Social Security you’ve paid for? Say, before you went into teaching, or maybe if you do summer work or anything else? You’re not going to get your fair share of it.’ No one tells you that,” said Dan Montgomery, President, Illinois Federation of Teachers. “We are not going to do the kinds of things we need to do to get public employees, to get teachers and support staff, into schools with the WEP and GPO in place. It’s grossly unfair. This is a brick in a wall to protect Social Security. You build it one brick at a time. The federal government shouldn’t cheat people. A promise is a promise.”

BACKGROUND

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 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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