Bipartisan legislation to provide full Social Security benefits to almost 3 million public-sector retirees cleared the Senate early Saturday, 76-20, and was sent to President Biden. The group that includes teachers, firefighters, and police officers now receives reduced benefits, the New York Times reports. The measure approved just before Congress left Washington cancels provisions enacted decades ago to prevent certain public employees and their relatives from "double dipping" on retirement benefits and to shore up Social Security.
Most of the people affected by the current reduction, per the Times, are:
- Public employees who receive pensions exempt from Social Security payroll taxes but who put in at least 10 years in jobs that required them to pay into the system.
- Recipients of public pensions who become eligible for Social Security survivor benefits when a spouse or family member dies.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the increase in payments will add $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, per the
AP.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins told the Senate a retired schoolteacher in Maine had to go back to work at 72 after her husband died. He was a Navy veteran who paid into Social Security for 40 years, but because she received a public pension from the school system, her surviving spousal benefits through Social Security were reduced by two-thirds. "This is an unfair, inequitable penalty," Collins said, adding that the public workers "have earned these benefits." President Biden and President-elect Trump support the legislation. Opponents including GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said a bill that will affect the solvency of Social Security is too important to rush at the last minute without debate. (More Social Security stories.)
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