Breaking: Senate passes bill to repeal Social Security penalty on teachers,

A bill to repeal the decades-long Social Security penalty on teachers, police and other government retirees won final passage Friday night after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to grant nearly 3 million Americans and more than 90,000 Louisianans their full benefits.

The Social Security Fairness Act by by Republican Louisiana Congressman Garrett Graves and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia now heads to President Biden’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.

“Today is a day to celebrate,” Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a statement to USA Today Network. “State and local workers in Louisiana deserve the full Social Security benefits they’ve earned. Now they will get it.

“This was a long overdue step. Now we must save Social Security from insolvency in nine years for every American.”

The 1980s-era Windfall Elimination Penalty and Government Pension Offset prevent about 2.8 million government retirees nationwide who earned pensions from those careers from collecting their full Social Security benefits earned while working outside of government.

In many cases their benefits are reduced by hundreds of dollars each month.

Opponents of the effort to remove WEP and GPO restrictions argued that repealing the current law will increase the strain already placed on Social Security and its future viability.

The Social Security Board of Trustees has said Social Security will become insolvent in 2035. Repealing WEP and GPO will cost about $200 billion during the next 10 years and speed up insolvency by about six months.

“We are 10 years away from Social Security reaching insolvency,” said Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis during a procedural vote earlier this week. “This bill would take $200 billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund without offsetting any payment to it. It pulls insolvency forward six months.”

More: Senate schedules vote on bill to end Social Security penalty on teachers, police

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Senate passes bill to repeal Social Security penalty on teachers, police

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