Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, proudly announced that Discharge Petition #16, which will allow H.R. 82, the “Social Security Fairness Act,” to be considered on the House floor, reached the required 218 signatures.  

“For 40 years, millions of public servants have seen their benefits stolen by a grossly unfair system. Now, the ‘Social Security Fairness Act’ is guaranteed to receive a vote on the floor on the U.S. House of Representatives,” Yoes said. “If the bill passes, we will be one step closer to the full repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset. I want to thank the bill’s sponsors, Representatives Garret N. Graves (R-LA) and Abigail D. Spanberger (D-VA), for their instrumental roles in helping get us to this point. It is a momentous occasion.”

Yoes complemented FOP members in every State and region of the country for their outreach to their elected Representatives, saying that their work was critical to today’s success.  Yoes noted that, as a rule, discharge petitions rarely succeed because it amounts to “second-guessing” the leadership of the majority.  Today’s success is one of only a handful of successful petitions since the end of World War II.

“This was a powerful demonstration of the power of the FOP’s grassroots,” Yoes said.  “I thank all of the members who made a call, sent a letter or email, or spoke directly with their Representative and got their signature on this petition.  We are so grateful for all those members who signed our petition, and our members should thank them for their support.”

The petition discharges a rule, H. Res. 1410, to the House floor which provides for the consideration of H.R. 82 on the House floor.  The petition will need to “ripen” for several legislative days before the bill can proceed to a vote.  Congress is facing a potential partial government shutdown and the days the House will remain in session prior to the election also remains in question, but according to Representatives Graves and Spanberger, there does not seem to be any procedural way to stop a vote.

“It will just be a question of time and of timing,” Yoes said.  “This is an incredible, even historic achievement, but we still have a hard path forward.  We need the vote in the House and then we need to get time on the Senate floor.  Even though the Senate bill has 62 cosponsors, our experience in the House shows us that having cosponsors on a bill does not guarantee floor action. It will be up to Senate leadership to do the right thing and stand with our public servants.”