Abigail Spanberger, now a full-time candidate for governor of Virginia, got one last thing checked off on her congressional to-do list.
President Biden formally signed Spanberger’s Social Security Fairness Act into law at a White House ceremony on Sunday.
The measure, which Spanberger had been pursuing for the final three years of her tenure in Congress, will eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, which had been added to the Social Security Act in 1983.
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security. Teachers, for instance, who do not earn Social Security in public schools but who work part-time or during the summer in jobs covered by Social Security have reduced benefits, even though they pay into the system for enough quarters to receive benefits.
The Government Pension Offset affects the spousal benefits of people who work as federal, state or local government employees — including police officers, firefighters, and educators — if the job is not covered by Social Security.
The GPO reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension — often offsetting benefits entirely.
“For decades, retired police officers, firefighters, teachers, government employees, and retired public servants across the country have worked hard, have paid into Social Security, and yet have found their earned benefits taken from them because of the WEP and GPO,” said Spanberger, who didn’t run for re-election to her Seventh District congressional seat last year so that she could focus her efforts on winning the Democratic Party nomination for governor in the 2025 cycle.
“Today, we put an end to this theft. Today at the White House, I watched President Biden sign my Social Security Fairness Act into law with thousands of Virginians on my mind — every police officer, firefighter, federal employee, and grieving spouse I’ve heard from who has long been denied their full benefits.
“Every Virginian who paid into Social Security should be able to count on their full earned benefits to support them in retirement. This firm belief — and the stories of Virginians long impacted by this injustice — strengthened my resolve to bring Republicans and Democrats together on Capitol Hill, force a long-overdue vote on the U.S. House floor, and finally get this done.”
Spanberger’s bill, which she first introduced in 2021, will impact 50,000 Virginians and nearly 2.5 million Americans all told.
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Chris Graham
