President Biden on Sunday signed a Social Safety invoice repealing two statutes which have diminished payouts to public sector employees together with firefighters and academics for years.
“The bill I’m signing today is about a simple proposition,” Biden mentioned earlier than signing the Social Safety Equity Act. “Americans who have worked hard all their lives to earn an honest living should be able to retire with economic security and dignity.”
“That’s the entire purpose of the Social Security system crafted by [former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] nearly 90 years ago,” the president added.
Late final month, the Senate overwhelmingly handed the Social Safety Equity Act by a 76-20 margin. The month earlier than, the invoice handed the Home by way of a 327-75 vote.
One of many statutes the Social Safety Equity Act repeals, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), was enacted in 1983 and decreased Social Safety advantages for employees receiving authorities pensions not coated by Social Safety.
The Social Safety Equity Act additionally repeals the Authorities Pension Offset (GPO), which was enacted in 1977 and shrunk advantages for spouses, widows and widowers with spouses receiving public sector pensions.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the sponsor of the Social Safety Equity Act, mentioned Sunday in a thread on the social platform X that she “was honored to be in attendance for the signing of the Social Security Fairness Act into law.”
“I have fought for this change since 2003, when I held the first-ever Senate hearing on repealing the WEP and GPO, and I am proud that this law will ensure public service no longer comes at the expense of the retirement benefits earned by an individual or their spouse,” Collins added later in her thread.
Biden mentioned Sunday earlier than signing the invoice that earlier “law that existed denied millions of Americans access to the full Social Security benefits they earned, by thousands of dollars a year.”
