Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, welcomed the news that H.R. 82, the “Social Security Fairness Act,” is now cosponsored by a majority of the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. As of this morning, the legislation has 219 cosponsors. The Senate bill, S. 597, has 37 cosponsors—more than a third of that body.

“This is a very important milestone for the more than 364,000 members of the FOP and this bill,” Yoes said. “We’re continuing to work with lawmakers in both the House and the Senate to further increase support for this legislation in Congress.”

This legislation, which would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) in current Social Security Law, is a top legislative priority for the FOP, which waged an intense campaign to achieve this legislative milestone. The WEP affects workers who spent some time in jobs not covered by Social Security and who also worked other jobs where they paid Social Security taxes long enough to qualify for retirement benefits. Similarly, the GPO may reduce the benefit received by surviving spouses if these spouses also receive a surviving spousal benefit from a public pension.

“The WEP and GPO provisions do not eliminate a windfall for workers. It is a loss of the benefits they earned and are denied because they also served the public and have a pension from that work. That’s not right and it’s not fair,” Yoes said. “Last Congress, the bill came so very close to receiving a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. We need 71 more cosponsors to force this bill to a floor vote.”