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The Social Security Fairness Act clears the crucial hurdle in the Senate and is headed for the final vote

The bill to extend Social Security benefits to millions of Americans cleared a key procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday afternoon and now heads to a final vote with the clock ticking and just days remaining in the current session of Congress.

Senators voted 73-27 to approve a motion to move forward with consideration of the Social Security Fairness Act, according to an unofficial Senate tally shown in a webcast on the floor.

“We will vote to pass the Social Security Fairness Act to repeal flawed policies that erode the benefits of those who have worked as teachers, firefighters, postal workers or public employees,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Social Media Media shortly before the vote. “Retirees who are deprived of their hard-earned benefits will be watching closely.”

The New York Democrat has pushed for the measure to be put forward for a full vote, which it would do Elimination of two federal policies that prevent millions of Americans, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with public pensions, from receiving their full Social Security benefits.

“Social security is a cornerstone of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” said Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, in the Chamber before Wednesday’s vote . “These workers only demand what they have earned.”

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, reported that a retired teacher was crying in his office and “didn’t understand why she was receiving less Social Security spousal benefits than if she had never worked at all.”

Sen. Thom Tillis spoke out against the measure, saying that although a small percentage of people don’t get what they should from Social Security, passing what he called an unfunded government mandate that would increase the federal deficit, ” is not the way to fix it.” ”

“This bill will drain $200 billion from the Social Security trust fund over 10 years with no way to pay it off,” the North Carolina Republican added.

What is the Social Security Fairness Act?

After decades in the making, the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that largely cut payments to nearly 3 million retirees.

This includes those who also receive pensions from state and federal jobs not covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also eliminate a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and dependents. The WEP affects approximately 2 million Social Security recipients and the GPO affects nearly 800,000 retirees.

“This stuff takes time, but 21 years is ridiculous,” Brown said of the process. The Senate held its first hearings on the guidelines in 2003.

The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 co-sponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. However, bipartisan support for the bill has waned somewhat in recent days, and some Republican lawmakers expressed doubts about its costs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would likely increase the federal deficit by $195 billion over a decade.

At least one Republican senator who signed a similar bill last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he was still considering whether to vote for the bill. “Nothing ever gets paid, so it’s another debt, I don’t know,” Braun told the Associated Press last week reported.


Some seniors are not eligible for full Social Security benefits

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“Ultimately it will come down to individual members making their own decisions about how they want to speak out,” new Republican leader John Thune said at a news conference Tuesday. “Of course I’m concerned about the long-term solvency of Social Security, and that’s an issue I think we need to address.”

Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would end with the current session of Congress and would have to be reintroduced in the next Congress.

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