Washington— In the final hours of the 118th Congress, the U.S. Senate voted 76 to 20 to pass the Social Security Fairness Act—historic legislation that ends the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset (WEP/GPO). These punitive and discriminatory penalties have robbed dedicated public service workers—including educators—of their hard-earned Social Security benefits. The bill now heads to President Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.
Over the past four decades, the National Education Association (NEA) and Maine Education Association (MEA) have worked diligently to repeal the WEP/GPO provisions, which currently penalize more than 2.7 million hardworking Americans—including 60,000 Mainers—by slashing their Social Security, pensions, and other retirement benefits.
“The repeal of GPO and WEP is a historic win for public employees, including thousands of retired educators in Maine. We know that these unfair provisions make it more difficult to recruit and retain educators,” said MEA President Jesse Hargrove. “This is a historic victory for educators, public employees, and their families. We are thankful for the bipartisan effort of our Senator from Maine, Susan Collins (R-Maine), who coauthored this bill with Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and has been working on bringing justice to retired public service workers for over two decades.
“In 2003, I held the first-ever Senate hearing on the WEP and the GPO, and I am pleased that now these unfair provisions in our Social Security system will finally be done away with,” Senator Collins said in a press release. “This is a victory for thousands of teachers, first responders, and public servants in Maine, who through service to their communities have been forced to forego their earned retirement benefits.”
For many teachers and educators, these two offsets in the Social Security system result in retirees losing up to two-thirds of their earned benefits. The historic repeal of these unfair penalties—which affect millions of educators, first responders, and other public service workers—has been a top priority for both NEA and MEA. It was made possible by the tireless advocacy of our members and other public service workers who lobbied on Capitol Hill and in constituent offices across the country.
The bill passed as part of a bipartisan effort, moving through the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 327-75 and finally passed in the Senate around midnight on December 21st by a vote of 76-20. Maine’s Congressional Delegation all voted in favor of the bill.
NEA Director Rebecca Cole is among the many Mainers who lobbied on the Hill for this historic moment. “We made history. This victory belongs to every one of the public service workers that flooded Congress with calls and emails from all 50 states and shows the power of our collective voice,” Cole said.
Learn more about the impact of GPO/WEP: LANDMARK Victory! GPO and WEP repealed | NEA
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