U.S. House Passes WEP/GPO Repeal Bill, Heads to Senate
Legislation & Governance
H.R. 82, also known as the Social Security Fairness Act, was introduced in Congress in January 2023.
November 13, 2024
Editor’s Note: In December 2024, Colorado PERA and the Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado sent a joint letter to Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, encouraging them to support the Social Security Fairness Act in the Senate. Read the letter.
In a historic first, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that aims to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which can reduce Social Security benefits for Colorado PERA members and other public employees.
The bill, H.R. 82—also known as the Social Security Fairness Act—was introduced in early January 2023 and eventually gained the support of over 300 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle. Lawmakers didn’t take any significant action on the bill until September 2024, when sponsors Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Garret Graves (R-LA) filed what’s known as a discharge petition, seeking to move the bill out of committee and force a floor vote.
Despite an Election Day maneuver seeking to table the bill, House leadership put H.R. 82 to a vote on Tuesday, November 12. It passed by a vote of 327 to 75.
The bill’s fate now lies with the Senate as lawmakers have just days to pass legislation before the current Congress ends. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he intends to bring the bill up for a vote.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern about the bill’s cost; a recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office found it would require nearly $200 billion in additional spending over the next decade to provide larger Social Security benefits to those affected.
What are WEP and GPO?
Social Security benefits are designed to replace only some of a worker’s pre-retirement earnings, and lower-paid workers receive a larger replacement percentage than higher-paid workers. Prior to the WEP being enacted in 1983, non-Social Security government workers like PERA members would receive a larger-than-intended Social Security benefit because of those years in their earning record when they weren’t contributing to Social Security. The WEP was meant to remove that advantage.
The GPO applies to PERA retirees who also receive a Social Security spousal or widow(er) benefit and reduces the Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the PERA benefit. That’s because spousal and widow(er) benefits are considered “dependent” benefits and were meant to help spouses who stayed at home and depended on their working partner for financial support. According to the Social Security Administration, now that it is common for both spouses to work, the GPO requires the “dependent” benefit to be offset by the dollar amount of their own retirement benefit.
It’s important to note that a retiree’s PERA benefit will never be reduced to Social Security or other benefits. Learn more about PERA and Social Security.
Federal lawmakers also voted on another WEP-related bill, H.R. 5342, which would have introduced a new formula for calculating Social Security benefit reductions rather than a full repeal. That bill failed on a vote of 175 to 225.
PERA On The Issues will continue to monitor legislation on this issue and we’ll post updates when available. Be sure to subscribe to our biweekly newsletter to stay informed.
FILE UNDER
Related Posts
Subscribe to PERA On The Issues
Stay informed by subscribing to our newsletter. Youʹll receive one email every two weeks that contains a summary of all the latest news.
