1 week Ago
WASHINGTON, D. C. - In a last hurrah for departing Sen.
Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the U.S. Senate on Saturday morning approved legislation he authored that will repeal two laws that reduce the Social Security benefits that public employees earn.
Seventy-six senators supported the measure and 20 opposed it. Republican U.S.
Sen. JD Vance of Cincinnati - who is about to become Donald Trump’s vice-president - was one of four senators who missed the vote. Opponents said Brown’s bill would take $200 billion out of Social Security over the next 10 years and hasten the program’s insolvency by six months.
“I hope somebody, over the next eight to 10 years, fixes Social Security in the future, because in 10 years, there will be a mandatory minimum 17% cut in the Social Security benefit across the board, if we continue to fail to act here, and if we continue to dig a deeper hole by the vote that we’re having today,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said on the U.S.
Senate floor. The U.S.
House of Representatives passed the bill last month by a 327-75 margin, with support from all Ohio members, so it now goes to President Joe Biden for a signature. Brown says more than 270,000 Ohioans who dedicated their lives to public service have been blocked from receiving their full Social Security benefits due to laws from the 1970s and 1980s that his measure will repeal. Stories by Sabrina Eaton Rep.
Bob Latta to chair energy subcommittee Wide range of bills pass during grand finale to Ohio’s legislative session: Capitol Letter President Joe Biden to sign bill that includes measures championed by Ohio’s Dave Joyce The Windfall Elimination Provision, enacted in 1983, reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who receive pensions from a federal, state, or local government for employment not covered by Social Security. The Government Pension Offset (GPO), enacted in 1977, reduces Social Security spousal benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers whose spouses receive pensions from a federal, state, or local government. He said his “Social Security Fairness Act” would repeal both of these laws, ensuring nearly 3 million affected law enforcement, firefighters, teachers, park rangers, and other public sector workers and their families receive the full Social Security benefits they earn.
The legislation is endorsed by numerous public sector unions. Brown spent decades in Congress seeking its adoption. As he urged bill passage in a Senate floor speech, Brown cited the case of an special needs school bus driver who drove 200 miles a day over 40 years for a district along Ohio’s border with West Virginia.
He said Fairland Local Schools driver Barbara Ward received her husband’s $2,100 monthly Social Security survior’s benefits after he passed away 10 years ago, but those payments were cut to $500 monthly after she retired with her own pension because of one of the provisions Brown’s measure would repeal. “They earned that Social Security, they paid into it,” said Brown. “Over and over, Americans like that bus driver have watched corporations get tax cuts and Wall Street get bailouts.
All these workers are asking for is what they have earned. It’s an issue that has a huge impact on a worker’s life, but it doesn’t get enough attention in Washington.” Another supporter, Republican U.
S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana recalled meeting with a retired Louisiana school teacher who cried in his office, not understanding why she was getting less in Social Security spousal benefits than if she had never worked at all.
“She felt like she was being punished for educating generations of Louisiana children,” said Cassidy. Another Republican supporter, U.S.
Sen Susan Collins of Maine, said mostly woman are penalized by provisions the bill would repeal. She cited the case of a retired Bangor teacher who had to re-enter the workforce at age 72 after her widow benefits were cut by two thirds, so she no longer had the financial security to remain retired. “Passing this Social Security fix right before Christmas would be a great gift for our retired firefighters, police officers, postal workers, teachers and others, who for years have contributed to Social Security but are now being penalized because of their time of public service,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“It’s deeply unfair.” In statements released after the vote, unions that represent public employees said they’d spent decades fighting to “finally be able to access the Social Security benefits they spent their careers paying into,” as American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders put it. “This historic victory will improve the lives of educators, first responders, postal workers and others who dedicate their lives to public service in their communities,” added National Education Association President Becky Pringle.
“There is no more fitting final act for Sen. Brown than to help deliver on behalf of America’s working families.” Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.
C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
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