Lawmakers in the House finally seem set to pass legislation to repeal two controversial tax provisions that affect some federal retirees’ annuity benefits, despite an attempt this week to derail the vote.
Last September, Reps. Garret Graves, R-La., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., obtained the 218 signatures required for a discharge petition to force a floor vote on the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), a measure that would eliminate Social Security’s windfall elimination provision and government pension offset. Prior to the petition drive, the bill already had more than 300 cosponsors.
The windfall elimination provision reduces the Social Security benefits of retired federal employees who spent a portion of their careers in the private sector in addition to a federal, state or local government job where Social Security is not intended as an element of their retirement income, such as the Civil Service Retirement System. And the government pension offset reduces spousal and survivor Social Security benefits in families with retired government workers.
