WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate approved a procedure Wednesday that sets a final vote before the end of the week to remove restrictions that eliminate or limit Social Security benefits for teachers, police, firefighters and other public workers who paid into the system.
The Senate “cloture” action Wednesday foreclosed the possibility of a bill-killing filibuster, ended debate and required the full Senate to proceed to a vote on Thursday night or Friday.
Sixty senators in the upper chamber had to agree to invoke cloture. The Senate approved cloture for the Social Security Fairness Act on a 73 to 27 vote, a good indication that the bill ultimately will pass.
Both Louisiana’s senators, Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, and John N. Kennedy, R-Madisonville, voted in favor of invoking cloture.
The legislation would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision, called WEP, and the Government Pension Offset, called GPO, which reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits earned from other employment when public servants also have a pension from a state or municipality that didn’t pay Social Security taxes.
The two provisions impact public workers who held other jobs before or after their government employment or, as often is the case for teachers, took a second job to supplement their income.
That amounts to about 94,000 employees in Louisiana and another 2 million nationwide.
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces Social Security benefits by up to half the pension amount for people receiving pension income from jobs that didn’t contribute Social Security payroll taxes.
The Government Pension Offset reduces benefits for survivors if the spouse had a pension that wasn’t taxed for Social Security. The Social Security benefits can be cut by up to two-thirds of the public employee’s pension.
Supporters argue that despite their public bosses’ decision not to contribute to Social Security, they had worked long enough in other jobs that did pay taxes to have earned Social Security benefits – therefore, their benefits should not have been reduced.
Though 61 senators had signed on in support of the legislation prior to the vote, some Republicans opposed the changes and spent the past few weeks behind closed doors trying to stall passage.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis argued that simply repealing the provisions would greatly harm a wobbly Social Security system on which most of the nation relies for retirement income, all just to right a wrong that impacts a relatively small number of people.
“It sounds like motherhood and apple pie,” said Tillis, R-North Carolina. “It is something we need to fix, but this is not the way.”
Tillis pointed out that the bill costs $196 billion but has no mechanism to offset the expenditure in a fund that is set to go insolvent in at most nine years. If that happens, Social Security benefits will be cut up to 25% across the board.
Opponents also argued that public service employees would unfairly profit from receiving Social Security benefits when they also are receiving a pension that didn’t contribute to the Social Security system.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, filed amendments that would have altered the legislation. At the very least, their amendments would have stalled final passage for the rest of this Congress. The cloture vote avoided a debate on their amendments.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, pressed for the cloture vote to circumvent any delay. The 118th Congress is scheduled to adjourn Friday, and any legislation not passed by then must start from scratch when the 119th Congress convenes in January.
The House voted 327 to 75 in November to approve the Social Security Fairness Act by U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia. The Senate vote will be the last legislative step.
If the legislation passes the upper chamber, it will be presented to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the bill into law.