After Cloture Vote in Senate, Alliance Members Call for Final Passage of Social Security Fairness Act

Legislation to restore Social Security benefits to millions of Americans cleared a key procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, following a 73-27 vote to reach cloture on H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act. Sixty votes were needed so that the legislation could proceed to a floor vote for final passage.

“Retirees are excited that the Senate reached cloture on legislation to restore full Social Security benefits to millions of Americans,” said Alliance Executive Director Richard Fiesta. “However, it is too soon to celebrate fully.”

The House also passed the Social Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82, on November 12, so Senate passage means the bill can head to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature.

“This landmark legislation is a long time coming,” Fiesta added. “Alliance members have been working for decades to see this bill become law.”

Fiesta stressed that for too long, the government has taken away Social Security benefits from millions of retired federal, state and local government employees who worked as teachers, police, firefighters, postal workers and general employees — benefits they earned when they worked other jobs.

The Social Security Fairness Act eliminates the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which unfairly reduce Social Security benefits for public sector retirees who receive a public pension — or the spouse or survivor of a Social Security beneficiary — who worked in a job not covered by the Social Security program.

“The WEP and GPO disproportionately affect lower-income workers and women,” Fiesta concluded. “As a result of Wednesday’s vote, millions of Americans are now on the verge of avoiding economic hardship during their retirement.”

A vote on final passage could come as soon as today.

Elon Musk, Speaker Johnson and Trump Stopgap Plan to Fund the Government Fails

A Republican plan to fund the government in the short-term failed Thursday. Ironically, the failure of Congress to agree on a Continuing Resolution to fund the government past midnight tonight could provide extra time to pass the Social Security Fairness Act if members of the Senate need to remain in Washington.

Thirty-eight House Republican lawmakers voted against the GOP government spending bill and two Democrats voted in favor of it.

An earlier, bipartisan funding agreement was scuttled Wednesday when tech mogul Elon Musk called for lawmakers who supported the continuing resolution to be voted out of office. President-elect Trump then followed suit in denouncing the plan, and the bipartisan deal to keep the government open until March 14 fell apart. Talks are still ongoing as of Friday afternoon.

“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, summarizing the situation on his Bluesky account.

“We cannot allow the GOP to enact tax cuts for billionaires while calling for cuts to Social Security,” said Alliance President Robert Roach, Jr. “Both parties agreed to a deal to keep the government operating. A deal is a deal.”

Republicans in Congress Are Talking Big About the First 100 Days, but There will be Roadblocks

The processes the GOP will need to use to push through President-elect Trump’s immediate priorities face some big political and procedural hurdles.

Those priorities include plans to renew approximately $4 trillion in expiring GOP tax cuts. The tax and economic proposals would, in 2026, cut taxes for the richest 5% of Americans and increase them for everyone else, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Republicans are also almost certainly planning to cut the COVID-19-era subsidy that helps defray the cost of health insurance for people who buy their own policies via the Affordable Care Act exchange. The extra health care subsidies were extended through 2025 in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which also includes various green energy tax breaks that Republicans want to roll back.

The process of quickly enacting the GOP priorities could break down at several points along the way. For example, conservative lawmakers wary of voting for a budget that will result in a $50 trillion national debt by the mid-2030s (the current official congressional projection), and “individual power plays,” like a single senator threatening not to vote for a final bill because of a last-minute change, could also be hurdles.

“In addition to tax breaks for the wealthy and changes that threaten access to health care, Republicans want to limit food stamps and other safety net programs, begin mass deportations and eliminate government jobs,” said Alliance Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Peters, Jr. “However, there will be opportunities for those opposing those plans to prevent them from coming to fruition along the way.”

KFF Health News: Trump’s Picks for Top Health Jobs Not Just Team of Rivals but ‘Team of Opponents’

Stephanie Armour and Julie Rovner

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s candidates for federal health agencies have promoted policies and goals that put them at odds with one another or with Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

setting the stage for internal friction over public health initiatives.

The picks hold different views on matters such as limits on abortion, the safety of childhood vaccines, the covid-19 response, and the use of weight-loss medications. The divide pits Trump picks who adhere to more traditional and orthodox science, such as the long-held, scientifically supported findings that vaccines are safe, against often unsubstantiated views advanced by Kennedy and other selections who have claimed vaccines are linked with autism.