Social Security Fairness Act passes Senate. Why it matters to thousands of people in CT.

The Social Security Fairness Act, which repeals provisions that reduce benefits for thousands of public service workers in Connecticut, moves to President Joe Biden’s desk after the U.S. Senate passed the bill early in the final hours of the session.

Passage was a major victory for advocates who argue the deductions unfairly hurt those who collected pensions but also worked jobs covered by Social Security. It was the culmination of a years-long effort to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset yet on a rare fast track through Congress over the past couple of months.

The timing was also significant, given the short window of time left in the current Congress, which has been dominated by must-pass legislation. And it passed shortly before the Senate took up the year-end package to fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown.

Momentum for the stalled legislation started this fall when authors of the House version sought to circumvent normal procedures and force a vote. They used a discharge petition, requiring them to collect a majority of signatures from lawmakers in order to get a vote. The bill overwhelmingly passed the House last month, raising the stakes for proponents to get it done before the end of the year.

That put pressure on the Senate to take up the legislation in the final weeks. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed last week to hold a vote before lawmakers left town. On Wednesday, the Social Security Fairness Act cleared the initial hurdle, and after a number of procedural and amendment votes this week, it moved to the last stage in the process late on Friday that stretched into the early morning hours.

The bill easily cleared final passage, 76-20, with support from both of Connecticut’s senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. The bill now heads to the White House where Biden is expected to sign it into law.

Support for repealing WEP and GPO brought together a range of coalitions and groups including lawmakers in both parties as well as unions representing industries like education, law enforcement, government employees and other public workers. The Fraternal Order of Police announced earlier in the week that President-elect Donald Trump backs the legislation.

“We have different political views. We have different pedagogical views,” Connecticut Education Association Vice President Joslyn DeLancey said, referring to her union, which represents thousands of teachers across the state. “So when we can find an issue that every single one of our members, all 40-plus-thousand of them, say, ‘No, this needs to be fixed,’ right? And I think that that’s what is really interesting about this issue.”

But critics raised concerns because there is no offset to pay for the repeal, and it would speed up the projected timeline of Social Security becoming insolvent, though both sides have acknowledged that Congress will need to deal with larger reforms to the program for its long-term financial health.

The bill eliminates two provisions that reduce Social Security payments to certain beneficiaries as well as spouses and surviving family members who also collect a pension from jobs that did not pay Social Security payroll taxes. That can include teachers, police officers, firefighters, government employees and others in the public sector.

The Windfall Elimination Provision can lower how much beneficiaries receive from Social Security if they also get pensions or disability benefits from uncovered work. It applies to those who paid Social Security taxes on less than 30 years of substantial earnings, which is currently set at $31,275 in 2024.

WEP affects more than 22,000 beneficiaries in Connecticut, with the vast majority of them retired workers, according to December 2023 estimates from the Congressional Research Service. Connecticut is one of 15 states where WEP applies to teachers.

The Government Pension Offset can cut Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of the non-covered pension from local, state or federal government employment. For some who receive a teacher’s pension, the cuts can be larger than their spousal benefits, so they essentially receive nothing through Social Security.

The bill easily passed the House last month, with support from four of the five Democratic members in Connecticut’s delegation. U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1, voted against it because it does not include an offset similar to that in his own Social Security reform bill, which seeks to temporarily remove those provisions. His own bill would fund the repeal of WEP and GPO through raising the income cap on taxable earnings for Social Security.

Larson, who serves as ranking member of the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, has been pushing for more comprehensive reforms to Social Security for years. His legislation, “Social Security 2100 Act,” has support from 188 Democrats but no GOP co-sponsors. That will become even more challenging next session when Republicans control both chambers of Congress and Trump returns to the White House.

Current estimates show the Trust Fund for old age and survivors insurance will be able to pay 100% of Social Security benefits through 2033. After that, it could result in people receiving reduced benefits, amounting to about a 20% cut.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that if the bipartisan legislation is enacted and repeals both provisions, it would cost nearly $196 billion over the next decade.

Others warned against ending WEP and GPO without an offset, arguing that it will be a drain on the Social Security Trust Fund. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., criticized the accelerated process for bringing up the bill, as well as concerns about having no offsets. In addition to the discharge petition in the House, Tillis noted the Senate held no committee hearings on the legislation.

“So it is something we need to fix, but this is not the way to fix it. We are 10 years away from most economists’ consensus believing that the Social Security Trust Fund is going to reach insolvency,” Tillis said earlier this week. “To right a wrong for a small percentage of people that should get fairly treated, they are going to take $200 billion over 10 years to pay for this. That pulls insolvency forward by six months.”

But those affected by the decrease in their benefits argue it unfairly affects many who have worked in public service, like teachers, police officers and firefighters, as well as survivor benefits for those who served in local, state or federal government.

A number of labor unions across industries have been at the forefront of the years-long push to repeal WEP and GPO. Groups like the Connecticut Education Association, the Connecticut chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans and the Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut made a big push to get a vote before the end of the session.

Those representing educators see the deductions as a particular roadblock for teachers because many of them need to work second or multiple jobs that pay into the Social Security system. And they note that it is an issue that disproportionately affects women, especially for many who raise their children and then reenter the workforce.

Advocates argue that WEP and GPO are barriers to hiring and retaining talent in Connecticut’s workforce, especially when it comes to second-career educators who have worked in a different field and decided to transition into education. CEA President Kate Dias said it makes it challenging “to attract people when there’s such a significant consequence to their joining the profession.”

Lisa Hagen is CT Mirror and CT Public’s shared Federal Policy Reporter. Based in Washington, D.C., she focuses on the impact of federal policy in Connecticut and covers the state’s congressional delegation.