The House approves a bill to strengthen social security for civil servants

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bipartisan bill that would increase Social Security benefits for millions of public sector workers.

The chamber passed House Resolution 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, by a margin of 327 to 76, with 191 Democrats and 136 Republicans voting in favor. The measure now goes to the Senate.

Supporters of the bill say it would make nearly 2.8 million public sector workers, including teachers, police officers and others in government, eligible for higher Social Security benefits upon retirement.

If passed, the bill would eliminate the windfall elimination provision and government pension compensation for government employees. The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces the Social Security benefits of someone who also receives a public pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security.

The government pension offset reduces Social Security benefits for spouses by two-thirds of a worker’s government pension.

Reps. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, and Abigail Spanberger, D-Virginia, were among the lawmakers who supported the bill.

“By passing the Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives stood up for the millions of Americans — police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other local and state employees — who had or were starting second jobs to make ends meet a second career to support their family after retiring from public service,” Graves and Spanberger wrote in a joint statement. “A bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to provide a secure retirement for the hundreds of thousands of husbands, widows and widowers who are denied Social Security benefits from their spouses simply because they chose careers in the service industry.”

Conservative-leaning nonprofit The Club for Growth urged lawmakers to vote against the bill, citing a rise in the government deficit.

“These two provisions are intended to preserve the integrity of the Social Security system on which so many seniors depend by ensuring that individuals and their spouses who worked in jobs that did not contribute to the Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance Trust Fund would receive pensions of those people. jobs do not threaten the solvency of Social Security,” the group said.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill, if passed, would add $195.6 billion to the budget deficit over the next decade.

It must go to the Senate during the current lame-duck session before going to the president.