The bill to repeal the windfall elimination provision clears a key hurdle in the Senate

The Senate voted 73-27 on Wednesday to limit debate on a bill to repeal two controversial tax provisions that affect the retirement benefits of some federal workers and other officials, paving the way for a final vote to pass the legislation later free this week.

The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) would repeal the Social Security deadweight elimination provision and the federal pension equalization. The deadweight elimination provision reduces the Social Security benefits of retired federal employees and other public employees who spent part of their careers in the private sector in addition to a federal, state, or local government job where Social Security was not a part Their activities provide for retirement income, such as the public service pension system. And the state pension equalization reduces Social Security benefits for spouses and survivors in families with retired state employees.

Despite broad bipartisan support over the years, lawmakers struggled to advance the bill until the dam finally broke this year and lawmakers, Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Garret Graves, R-La., successfully passed a dismissal motion filed to force a vote in the House of Representatives on the legislation. The House passed the bill last month by a vote of 327-75.

Following a commitment he made last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has scheduled the procedural vote needed to overcome a potential filibuster for Wednesday.

“Passing this solution just before Christmas would be a great gift for our retired firefighters, police officers, postal workers and more,” Schumer said. “(WEP and GPO) are deeply unfair and contradict the American ideal of working hard, making money and then enjoying the retirement you deserve.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., objected to the bill’s introduction without a Senate hearing on the legislation, as well as its price tag – the Congressional Budget Office predicts the measure will cost $200 billion over the next 10 years US dollars and will accelerate social policy insolvency of the securities trust fund by six months.

“It sounds like motherhood and apple pie – the Social Security Fairness Act – who could be against Social Security Fairness?” he said. “The fact is that the policy is addressing a problem with Social Security for a single-digit percentage of people who have a pension and are not getting exactly what they should be getting back. So it’s something we need to fix, but that’s not the way to fix it.”

But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, noted that she has been holding hearings on the two tax provisions for more than two decades. And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said he saw firsthand how some officials are punished for spending part of their careers in public service before he ran for office.

“Millions of teachers, firefighters, police officers and I have worked in a public hospital for the uninsured, so I would also add nurses, technicians, lab technicians and janitors. “They all expect us to keep that promise, and they’re watching today,” Cassidy said. “I am hopeful that the Senate will pass the Social Security Fairness Act to finally stop punishing them for choosing to serve our communities. We can fix a broken system that has unfairly harmed them for nearly 30 years.”