Congressman John Boccieri to Mark Fredrick re: GPO/WEP

From Congressman John Boccieri, April 3, 2009
Subject: A Message from Congressman Boccieri

Dear Mr. Fredrick,

Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 235, entitled Social Security Fairness Act of 2009. I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 235 introduced into this Congress and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

As introduced, H.R. 235 would amend title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the government pension offset (GPO) and windfall elimination provisions (WEP). The GPO provision reduces Social Security benefits that a person receives as a spouse if he or she also has a federal, state or local government pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also have pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security.

H.R. 235 would repeal the government pension offset requirements applicable to husband's and wife's insurance benefits, widow's and widower's insurance benefits, and mother's and father's insurance benefits with respect to old-age, survivors and disability insurance payments. The measure would also repeal the windfall elimination requirements with respect to computation of an individual's primary insurance amount.

Thank you again for sharing your views with me. I will keep your views in mind should this bill come to the floor.

Sincerely,

John Boccieri
Member of Congress