WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate moved late Friday to a final vote on a proposal to boost Social Security benefits for millions of people, potentially pushing a longstanding priority for former administration officials through Congress in one of its final acts of the year.
The bipartisan bill would eliminate long-term cuts in Social Security benefits for nearly 3 million people who receive pensions because they worked in federal, state and local government, or in public services such as teachers, firefighters and police officers. Supporters say the Social Security Fairness Act would right a decades-old inequity, though it would also put further strain on Social Security trust funds.
The legislation has been decades in the making, but the push to pass it came in the final weeks that lawmakers were in Washington before Congress resets next year. All but one of the Democrats in the Senate, as well as 23 Republicans, supported the effort to bring it to a final vote.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “very important for our retired teachers and firefighters, postal workers and police officers and so many other public servants who deserve their full Social Security benefits.”
The bill repeals two provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset – that limit Social Security benefits to certain recipients if they receive pension payments from other sources, such as the public pension program for a state or local government.
“Social security is a foundation of our middle class. It is a retirement security that Americans invest in and earn throughout their lives,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who pushed for the proposal for years but will leave Congress after losing re-election.
He added that the current restrictions “make no sense. These employees serve the public. They protect our communities. They teach our children. They pay into social security just like everyone else.”
People who currently receive a reduction in their Social Security benefits under the exceptions would soon see an increase in their monthly payments. But these increased payments would also add an estimated $195 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
It has already been estimated that Social Security Trust funds will not be able to pay out full benefits from 2035 onwards, and the change will push the program’s insolvency date by about half a year. A typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033 would see an additional lifetime reduction of $25,000, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Many opponents of the bill acknowledged that the current cuts are not fair to public sector retirees, but said they could not support the bill if the entire program faces challenges.
“We have succumbed to the pressures of the moment instead of doing this on a sustained basis,” said Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who opposed the bill.
The policy changes will also create more work for the Social Security Administration, at a time when the agency is already at its lowest staffing levels in 50 years. The agency currently has about 56,400 employees — the lowest level since 1972, according to an agency spokesperson — even as it serves more people than ever. The emergency government funding bill that was also considered Friday evening did not include increased funding for the agency, which is currently in a hiring freeze.
Still, Republican supporters of the bill said there was a rare opportunity to address what they described as an unfair part of federal law that hurts public service retirees.
“They have earned these benefits. This is an unfair, inequitable punishment,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine.
Republican supporters of the bill also said they would return to work on bigger improvements to Social Security. However, President-elect Donald Trump has said he will not cut benefits even as his administration appears to be making deep cuts elsewhere.
Nevertheless, Senate Republicans are working on ideas that would put the program on better financial footing, but would also inevitably require a reduction in benefits. One budget hawk, Sen. Rand Paul, pushed Friday for a proposal to gradually raise Social Security’s retirement age to 70.
“We have so much to do to get this right and have the courage to get Social Security in order in the coming years,” Tillis said. “We will rue the day we failed.”
