Legislation that would expand Social Security benefits for millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and now heads to President Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20. Social Security Fairness Actwhatever will happen End two federal policies That prevents about 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with public pensions, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation took decades to make, as the Senate held its first hearing on the policies in 2003.
“The Senate has finally righted a 50-year-old mistake,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, announced after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, said the bill's passage “is a major victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they have earned.” “Finally restores fairness to the system and ensures that the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
Just as the Senate was looking to end its current session, the voting loomed. Senators late Friday rejected four amendments and a budgetary order question that would have derailed the measure, with little time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance of Ohio was one of 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote on Wednesday.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, said, “Social Security is the foundation of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire.” The chamber ahead of Wednesday's vote. “All these workers are demanding their wages.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies – the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) – that reduce Social Security payments for nearly 3 million retirees.
It also includes people who draw pensions from state and federal jobs not covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also eliminate another provision that reduces Social Security benefits for surviving spouses and family members of those workers. About WEP 2 million Social Security Beneficiaries and GPOs Approx. 800,000 retired.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet bipartisan support for the bill waned in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers expressing skepticism because of its cost. According To According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add an estimated $195 billion to the federal deficit over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill's fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and it would have needed to be reintroduced in the next Congress.