On. Jan. 9, Reps. Garrett Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) reintroduced the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 (H.R. 82). This bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which are parts of Social Security law that unfairly reduce or sometimes eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of federal annuitants, including former Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) letter carriers.
WEP reduces earned Social Security benefits for CSRS employees and for Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) employees, who also receive a public pension from another job not covered by Social Security. In addition, WEP affects employees who move from a job in which they earn Social Security to a job where they do not earn the Social Security benefit.
GPO affects CSRS employees and spousal benefits of people who work as federal, state or local government employees if the job is not covered by Social Security. GPO currently reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension.
The bill, which received a supermajority of cosponsors in the 117th Congress, already has 59 cosponsors. Despite consistent bipartisan support, the legislation has proved difficult to pass due to the price tag.
NALC will continue actively working to gain support for this bill so letter carriers can receive the full benefits they earned.
Click here for NALC’s fact sheet on H.R. 82.