President Biden on Sunday signed a Social Security bill repealing two statues which have diminished payouts to public sector workers including firefighters and teachers for years.
“The bill I’m signing today is about a simple proposition,” Biden said before signing the Social Security Fairness Act. “Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity.”
“That’s the entire purpose of the Social Security system crafted by [former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] nearly 90 years ago,” the president added.
Late last month, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Social Security Fairness Act by a 76-20 margin. The month before, the bill passed the House via a 327-75 vote.
One of the statutes the Social Security Fairness Act repeals, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), was enacted in 1983 and reduced Social Security benefits of workers receiving government pensions not covered by Social Security.
The Social Security Fairness Act also repeals the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which was enacted in 1977 and shrunk benefits for spouses, widows and widowers with spouses receiving public sector pensions.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the sponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act, said in a thread on the social platform X Sunday that she “was honored to be in attendance for the signing of the Social Security Fairness Act into law.”
“I have fought for this change since 2003, when I held the first-ever Senate hearing on repealing the WEP and GPO, and I am proud that this law will ensure public service no longer comes at the expense of the retirement benefits earned by an individual or their spouse,” Collins added later in her thread.
Biden said Sunday before signing the bill that previous “law that existed denied millions of Americans access to the full Social Security benefits they earned, by thousands of dollars a year.”
