U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serve, we strongly urge you to VOTE YES on H.R. 82 and NO on H.R. 5342 when they come to the floor later today. Votes on this issue WILL BE SCORED in NEA’s report card for the 118th Congress.
This will be a historic vote. For decades, GPO/WEP repeal has been among the very top priorities of our members.
H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, has massive bipartisan support—330 cosponsors—the most of any bill during this session of Congress. It would fully repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that rob more than 2.8 million retirees all across America, including many educators, of Social Security benefits they have earned. The penalties imposed by GPO/WEP also discourage people from becoming educators—especially those in mid-career, who stand to lose Social Security benefits they have already earned. That, in turn, can adversely affect the quality of the education our students receive.
H.R. 5342, the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act, has barely 10 percent the number of cosponsors and falls far short of righting these historic wrongs. The bill totally ignores the GPO that eliminates surviving spouse benefits for more than 70 percent of those affected. It also does not do enough to address the WEP, which reduces the Social Security benefits of people who work in jobs covered by Social Security and jobs NOT covered by Social Security over the course of their careers. It would also lower the benefits of future retirees.
For all of these reasons, we strongly urge you to VOTE YES on H.R. 82 and NO on H.R. 5342.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
