Early Saturday morning, December 21, 2024 the U.S. Senate voted 76-20 to approve H.R. 82 (the Social Security Fairness Act) without amendment. H.R. 82 repeals the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which affect an estimated 6.5 million public sector workers not covered by Social Security.
The sponsors of H.R. 82 employed a rarely-used procedural maneuver allowing the bill to go directly to the U.S. House floor in November where it passed 327-75. However, its fate was far from certain in the U.S. Senate, particularly with a looming government shutdown consuming the limited number of remaining legislative days.
The chamber followed with its own tactics to bring the legislation directly to the U.S. Senate floor. During its debate on the repeal bill, the Senate considered a number of amendments. Each was soundly defeated (or withdrawn from consideration):
- An amendment offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which would have offset the costs of repeal by gradually raising the eligibility age for Social Security to 70, was defeated 93 to 3.
- Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), who will Chair the Senate Finance Committee next Congress, offered an amendment to delay the effective date of repeal until a cost offset could be put in place. The Crapo amendment was defeated 62-34.
- An amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to substitute a WEP-only formula change for repeal was defeated by a vote of 64 to 32. The WEP-only formula approach also was defeated in the House by a vote of 225 to 175.
- While an amendment to impose mandatory Social Security coverage on state and local government employees was filed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who spoke about it on the Senate floor, no vote was held.
H.R. 82 can now head to the president's desk for his expected signature. Once enacted, it is unclear how quickly the Social Security Administration (SSA) will be able to recalculate the benefit amounts and begin making payments that reflect the WEP-GPO repeal. Another challenge facing SSA will be how to handle the fact that the legislation is effective for all monthly insurance payments made after December 2023. SSA will have to determine how to most efficiently make these retroactive payments.