CARE
Coalition
to Assure Retirement Equity
703-838-7760
Ext. 315
Congressional
Hearing Status and Information
The
Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family
Policy will hold a hearing on the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and
the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) on Tuesday, November 6th
at 2:30 P.M in 215 Dirksen. Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) is
holding the hearing to review current Social Security policies that
affect government workers and retirees who participate in a pension
system where Social Security taxes are not paid (but who also worked in
Social Security covered employment, or had spouses who did). Senate
Finance Committee staff confirms a small number of witnesses have been
invited to testify, including three government Social Security experts
and one affected teacher from the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Senator Kerry and Ranking Member Ensign (R-NV) will both provide
statements. I have been told the government witnesses will:
provide background on the GPO-WEP legislation, and review the
repeal legislation as well as the alternative modification
bills. NARFE plans to submit written testimony for the
hearing, and is asking its members whose Senators serve on the
subcommittee to be sure to contact those offices prior to the hearing.
According
to
Other
Legislative Developments:
Rep. Al
Wynn (D-MD) introduced a companion bill to the Mikulski-Voinovich GPO
reform bill.
A new
CRS report is available on the Hutchison-Brady WEP reform legislation,
and it is attached. At present, NARFE has no position on this
legislation. This WEP legislation would continue the current
WEP for non-covered workers and for affected retirees. The
measure institutes a new offset for ‘brand new’
workers in non-covered employment. The legislation seeks to capture a
worker’s entire history of earnings---work performed under
Social Security AND work not covered by Social Security—to
then be included in the AIME calculation used for determining an
individual’s Social Security benefit. An increased
Social Security benefit would result for low and medium earners, but
high-wage earners would receive a decreased Social Security benefit.
Future
state and local government retirees with over 30 years of Social
Security earnings—who are exempt from the WEP under current
law —would be impacted by the new offset and could
potentially lose more in Social Security benefits than under the
current WEP. Those already retired and affected by the WEP could ask
for a re-calculation under this new formula and receive the highest
resulting amount (as well as current non-covered workers once they
retire and seek to collect SS benefits). Since all of
NARFE’s members are already non-covered workers or retirees
(since 1984 all new federal government workers have participated in
Social Security), I am interested to know what the groups who represent
state and locals think, as you will have ‘brand
new’ non-covered workers.
This
new CRS report also includes the first updated WEP data in several
years, including the first-ever state breakdown of WEP individuals. I
have also attached an article that will appear in the December of NARFE magazine
that includes a concise summary of GPO-WEP data, as well as a chart
listing how many individuals in each state are affected by GPO and
WEP.
Upcoming CARE
Meeting
I plan
to hold a CARE meeting in early December to discuss strategy for the
Second Session. I hope to kick-start two task forces at this
meeting: one to oversee joint Capitol Hill visits, and one focused on
online advocacy efforts. The NEA, AFSCME, and FOP have expressed
interest so far. My plan is for the meeting to be in
two-parts: a general CARE meeting, followed by a meeting to discuss the
two task forces for those groups interested. I will send a
CARE meeting notice shortly, and do plan to hold this meeting in
downtown
Summary of
Pending GPO-WEP Legislation in the 110th
Congress:
Feinstein and Collins’ S.
206, 34 cosponsors
Berman and McKeon’s H.R.
82, 331 cosponsors
(All time record cosponsor levels
for both bills)
Mikulski and Voinovich’s
S. 1254, 8 cosponsors
Al Wynn’s H.R. 2988, 0
cosponsors
Barney Frank’s H.R. 726,
15 cosponsors
Hutchison’s S. 1647, 0
cosponsors
Kevin Brady’s H.R. 2772,
21 cosponsors
(see above for an explanation of
this legislation)