AFT Applauds House ‘Yes’ Vote on the Social Security Fairness Act

WASHINGTON-AFT President Randi Weingarten and Roger Boudreau, president of Rhode Island AFT's retiree chapter, issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset-two unfair parts of Social Security law that reduce or even eliminate Social Security benefits for millions of workers:

"The Social Security Fairness Act rights a wrong that has been unfair and uncorrected for far too long," said Weingarten. "The Windfall Elimination Program and the Government Pension Offset have undermined the retirement security of educators, school staff, and state and local government workers for decades. When you contribute to Social Security, it should be there for you when you retire. Period. GPO and WEP created offsets and penalized workers. No one who works hard and pays into Social Security should retire and see their benefits slashed. We should always be fighting for solutions to ease the burdens on working families-not creating them. Thank you to Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.) for correcting this unfairness and leading the effort to remove these penalties once and for all."

"I've worked with and advocated for Rhode Island seniors from across our great state since retiring from the teaching profession," said Boudreau. "My activism is driven by the belief that older Americans deserve to retire with dignity after years spent in the workforce and caring for their families. But because of the WEP and GPO, there are nearly 3 million retired public service workers whose earned Social Security benefits are being substantially reduced by 40 percent or more, or in some cases eliminated entirely. For those retirees, and the more than 6 million current public employees who would have been affected in the future, we join in thanking Congress for their decision to bring about fairness and dignity."

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.