At the recent Leadership Summit held in San Diego, ACSA’s Council of Retired Leaders sponsored three presentations. Attendees at each session were asked if they were aware of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and how they can and will affect their retirement benefits. A few hands were raised, but due to time constraints of each session, the explanation was very cursory:

These provisions were originally intended to prevent “double-dipping,” but we have argued that these provisions unfairly penalize certain public-sector workers including educators, police officers and firefighters in California.

Members of the ACSA Council of Retired Leaders, with the support of the ACSA Governmental Relations team, have been a part of the National Task Force to Repeal the WEP/GPO. During the 117th Congressional Session (2022-23) H.R. 82 was introduced. This bi-partisan bill had the required co-signers but was “tabled” at the very end of the session. Nevertheless, the National Task Force continued its quest to repeal the WEP/GPO. We worked with the co-authors to reintroduce a bill for the 118th Congress, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023. By chance, it was given the same bill number, H.R. 82. With a concerted effort across the nation and the support of ACSA/CSBA’s federal lobbyist, we first worked on getting as many co-signers to this bill as possible. We were able to get more than 325 cosigners, an unprecedented number.

The next step was to get this bill to the floor for a vote. The co-authors of the bill filed a “discharge petition” to bring it to a vote. The petition needed 218 members to sign, which was accomplished. This petition was almost undermined by two members that took action to try and table the bill during a pro-forma session when members were back in their districts during the election. Action was taken to undo this and H.R. 82 was brought to the floor for a vote. H.R. 82 passed on Nov. 12 with 325 representatives voting for it (75 nays, 1 present, 1 absent). Victory! The National Task Force accomplished the first step in repealing a law that has been on the books for more than 40 years.

Now on to the Senate version, S. 597. Once again we will be seeking support to get this bill passed. This accomplishment is an example of the Council of Retired Leaders working on behalf of all members of ACSA.