TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009
(copyright 2009 Texas AFT)

Latest News on the Social Security Fairness Act

The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 235 in the U.S. House, S. 484 in the U.S. Senate) would repeal two unfair pension offsets (the Government Pension Offset of spousal benefits and the Windfall Elimination Provision) that cut duly earned benefits of Texas school employees and other public servants in more than a dozen states.
 
The 2008 elections created a new power lineup in Washington that should make the outlook more favorable than ever for passage of the Social Security Fairness Act. During the 2008 presidential campaign then-candidate Obama emphatically reaffirmed his support for repealing the two unfair Social Security offsets: "Nobody should be penalized for serving our children, and that's why I support repealing the GPO/WEP and will work to do so as President."

The Fairness Act as of the August 2009 recess has 304 cosponsors in the U.S. House, 29 in the U.S. Senate. All 12 Democrats in the Texas delegation to the U.S. House are cosponsors; so are nine of the 20 Texas Republican members. Neither of the two Republican U.S. senators (Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn) from Texas is on board.
 
In the 2007-2008 session of Congress, both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House Social Security Subcommittees held important hearings documenting the adverse impact of the two offsets. (Texas AFT Secretary-Treasurer John O'Sullivan testified for the Social Security Fairness Act as an invited witness at the House hearing.) The challenge now is to move beyond hearings to action in the 2009-2010 session of Congress, in spite of the myriad other pressing issues competing for attention on the federal agenda. It's our job to create the pressure for urgent action on this issue of retirement security for school employees.
 
Such action certainly is needed now more than ever, as private retirement resources have shriveled in the economic downturn. Texas TRS pensions have lost more than 20 percent of their value to inflation since the last cost-of-living adjustment was passed by the legislature in 2001. Texas TRS pensions on average provide only 58 percent of pre-retirement income. Social Security offers a stable foundation of inflation-adjusted retirement income security for those who have earned such benefits--or rather, for many of our members, it would, were it not for the unfair GPO and WEP offsets.
 
Texas AFT is working with the national AFT and with AFT affiliates in other adversely affected states to move this issue higher on the congressional agenda. One possibility is that the repeal of the GPO and WEP could become part of a broader Social Security reform effort in the 2009-2010 Congress.
 
You can help increase the pressure for action by sending an e-mail of the letter on t his issue provided for you at the Texas AFT Web site at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/socialsecurity17. The letter is drafted so that you can send it to all members of the Texas delegation, whether they have signed on as cosponsors of the Fairness Act yet or not.
 
For the record, here's where the individual members of the Texas delegation in the U.S. House stand as of now on H.R. 235, the Social Security Fairness Act:
 
The 12 House Democratic cosponsors are Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Chet Edwards of Waco, Charles Gonzalez of San Antonio, Al Green of Houston, Gene Green of Houston, Ruben Hinojosa of Edinburg, Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi, Silvestre Reyes of El Paso, and Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio.
 
The nine Republican cosponsors are: Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, John Carter of Round Rock, Michael Conaway of Midland, Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Michael McCaul of Austin, Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock, Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, and Ted Poe of Humble.
 
The 11 Texans in the U.S. House who have chosen not support the Fairness Act, all Republicans, are: Joe Barton of Ennis, Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, John Culberson of Houston, Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, Sam Johnson of Plano, Kenny Marchant of Irving, Pete Olson of Sugar Land, Pete Sessions of Dallas, Lamar Smith of San Antonio, and Mac Thornberry of Amarillo.