Millions of Americans, including more than 90,000 in Louisiana, will receive their full earned Social Security benefits after President Joe Biden signed a bill by former Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves Sunday to end two penalties on government retirees like teachers, police and their spouses.
Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act by Graves, a Republican who didn’t seek reelection in 2024, and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia during a White House Ceremony Sunday afternoon.
In many cases the Social Security benefits will be increased by hundred of dollars per month – an average of $360 per month. “It’s a big deal,” Biden said.
The 1980s-era Windfall Elimination Penalty and Government Pension Offset have prevented about 2.4 million government retirees nationwide who earned pensions from those careers from collecting their full Social Security benefits earned while working outside of government.
Graves, who sponsored the bill the past two years after it had been blocked for decades, finally got the legislation across the finish line with House passage in November and Senate passage in December.
He said the benefits have been stolen from public servants.
“For 40 years police, firefighters, teachers and public servants have been robbed of their hard-earned retirement benefits,” Graves said in a statement to USA Today Network. “For 40 years, politics has sidelined every effort to correct this injustice.
“When I introduced H.R. 82 just two years ago, we assembled a coalition to subvert the political status quo and repeal the WEP and GPO. We held the first ever hearings on the bill. We collected the most cosponsors ever and became the most cosponsored bill in the House. We forced the first-ever vote in the House and swiftly maneuvered the bill to the president’s desk. We upended the political status quo because the millions of public servants who protect and serve us deserve no less than what they truly earned.”
Social Security officials must now take the new law and implement it.
Though the implementation could take months, the Social Security Fairness Act is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, but recipients will receive back pay from that date.
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy was among those who helped shepherd Graves’ bill through the Senate.
“State and local workers in Louisiana deserve the full Social Security benefits they’ve earned,” Cassidy said after the Senate vote. “Now they will get it.”
Opponents of the effort to remove WEP and GPO restrictions argued that repealing the current law will increase the strain already placed on Social Security and its future viability.
The Social Security Board of Trustees has said Social Security will become insolvent in 2035. Repealing WEP and GPO will cost about $200 billion during the next 10 years and speed up insolvency by about six months.
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Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Biden signs law ending Social Security penalties on government retirees
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