California CRTA: WEP and GPO issues

Democrats’ Control Of Congress A Boost For Repeal Of Social Security Penalties

With Democrats recapturing control of the Congress for the first time since 1994, the prospects for repeal of the Social Security penalties have received a significant boost.

“We believe that repeal will get the full consideration it deserves when the Democrats take control of Congress in January,” said CRTA President George Avak.

At issue are the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) penalties on teachers in 15 states, including California. Many police and firefighters are also affected.

The WEP reduces a teacher’s own earned Social Security benefit by roughly half and the GPO typically eliminates any spousal or survivor’s benefit for teachers married to a Social Security recipient.

While intended to curb perceived abuses of pensions, the actual result of the penalties has been to shrink promised retirement income for many teachers and to reduce elderly teachers, mostly women, to poverty late in life.

As the impact of the penalties has become clear over the years, the movement to repeal them has grown. Congressmen Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles) have repeatedly introduced bills to repeal the penalties.

Their latest effort (H.R. 147) has garnered 326 co-sponsors but has been blocked from any consideration by the Republican leadership.

Senator Dianne Feinstein has led similar repeal efforts in the Senate.

Initial action is expected in the House, however. The make-up of the new House leadership will be dramatically different. New York Democrat Charles Rangel, a cosponsor of H.R. 147, is expected to take the reins of the House Ways and Means Committee, replacing retiring Congressman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield).

Sander Levin (D-MI) is in line to chair the Subcommittee on Social Security. He is not a co-sponsor of H.R. 147.

However, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) signed on as a co-sponsor of the WEP/GPO repeal bill in May of 2005.

California Retired Teachers Association

November 2006