Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, hailed today’s historic vote on the Senate floor that will send H.R. 82, the “Social Security Fairness Act,” to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

“Today’s vote is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of folks who have been committed to Social Security fairness for years, and we would not have gotten this through Congress without this truly bipartisan effort,” Yoes said.  “We want to first thank President-elect Trump.  At a key moment in this process, we appealed to him for his help, and he delivered gladly and powerfully to provide the support we needed.  We are indebted to him for the role he played in tonight’s success.

“And of course, the FOP and its members are eternally grateful to Representatives Graves and Spanberger, who led us through the House with such success.  Senator Schumer made good on the promise he made to us and his invaluable legislative strategy got us to and over the finish line.  We also owe a great debt to the bill’s sponsor, Senator Sherrod Brown, who fought tenaciously for us on this issue and to Senators Collins and Cassidy, who were key allies in building support on this historic vote today.  We are also grateful to our good friend Senator Klobuchar, who also played an important role in tonight’s victory. 

“We also would like to recognize our partners at the International Association of Fire Fighters, led by General President Ed Kelly, with whom we have an invaluable and unbreakable alliance on the most critical issues facing our members.  All the other unions played an important role, as did our partners at the International Association of Chiefs of Police who worked closely with us and Senators Cassidy and Brown to pass this historic legislation.”

Following the Senate’s action today, the legislation repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) goes to the President, who has pledged to sign it into law.  Under current law, the WEP reduces the Social Security benefit earned by public employees who worked other jobs where they paid Social Security taxes long enough to qualify for the benefits. The GPO reduces or, in most cases, eliminates the benefit received by surviving spouses if they also receive a survivor’s benefit from a public pension.  Once President Biden signs H.R. 82 into law, these provisions are repealed.

“The WEP and GPO are inherently unfair provisions that unjustly penalize our nation’s public employees,” Yoes said.  “No one, even those who did not vote for our bill today, argued that the provisions treated workers fairly.  No one,”  Yoes said. “If this scheme were being run by a pension board or private money management group instead of the Social Security Administration, they would not call it an elimination of a windfall or an offset—it would be considered embezzlement.”

National President Yoes said he was not sure when the President would sign the legislation but noted that the soon-to-be law’s effective date is for the “months after December 2023.”  He also noted that it will also take some time for the Social Security Administration to implement the changes.

“I am so very proud of our members who answered our call to action by writing and calling their Representatives and Senators to help get this bill through Congress,” Yoes said.  “We got it done and I look forward to President Biden signing this bill into law.”