An Update on the Social Security Fairness Act

The APWU has never stopped fighting to pass the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82, S. 597). This bill would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which are parts of Social Security law that unfairly reduce, or sometimes eliminate, Social Security benefits for millions of federal annuitants. The GPO and WEP penalize CSRS retirees that meet the requirements for Social Security benefits and have paid their fair share into the program.

To address this inequity, 324 members of the House and 61 members of the Senate from both parties now support this legislation. With this much bipartisan support, our next step is to back a discharge petition. A discharge petition is a process to bring any bill sitting in committee to the House floor for a vote as long as at least 218 members of Congress sign the petition. In this instance, a successful discharge petition would bypass both the Speaker of the House and committee to bring H.R.82 to the House floor for an up or down vote before we run out of time this Congress.

Over the last few years we have been strongly advocating for this bill, and the time is now to get the Social Security Fairness Act over the finish line. The APWU calls on all members of Congress in the House to not only cosponsor H.R. 82, but to support a discharge petition!