U.S. House Committee Schedules Hearing on GPO/WEP; Ohio Senate Joins House Urging Repeal
The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means has scheduled a hearing about the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). GPO and WEP are offsets to Social Security that unfairly punish public service by reducing earned benefits for retirees who collect a public pension from jurisdictions that did not pay into Social Security. Many OEA members are adversely affected by these provisions of federal law and OEA/NEA have long advocated for their repeal.
The Ways and Means Committee’s hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 3:00 pm. The stated reason for the hearing is to examine the intended purpose of GPO and WEP as well as shortcomings and alternatives. OEA favors a full repeal of GPO and WEP as called for in H.R. 82 the Social Security Fairness Act. This is bipartisan legislation with 312 cosponsors, a majority of the U.S. House. Companion legislation, S. 597, is sponsored by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and has over 50 co-sponsors.
Members who wish to share their stories or urge support for repeal can provide written testimony to the committee. Testimony can be submitted as a Word document attachment sent to MWSubmission@mail.house.gov by close of business on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. More information on the hearing is available by clicking here.
NEA’s action alert in support of the Social Security Fairness Act, may be found here.
On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, the Ohio Senate joined the Ohio House in unanimously passing House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 6. This resolution urges Congress to fully repeal GPO and WEP. The resolution passed the Senate by a vote of 30-0. OEA thanks the members of the Senate for their passage of HCR 6 and urges members of the Ohio General Assembly to work with their colleagues in Washington for full repeal of GPO and WEP.
For more information about the negative impact of GPO and WEP on educators and other public employees, please click here.
For an archive of past Legislative Watch releases, visit the Legislative Watch archive.
