WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is expected to try next week to pass a Social Security-related bill to guarantee benefits to workers who are also eligible for other pensions, despite a surprise move by far-right leaders of the Freedom Caucus to derail the efforts.
It’s a quick turnaround to salvage what had been a bipartisan effort to pass the bill during what is now Congress’s post-election period.
Here’s what happens:
WHAT DOES THE BILL DO?
The measure that would repeal so-called “government pension offset” has won support in the House — 300 hardy lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have signed it.
The bill’s summary states that offsetting government pensions “in various cases reduces the Social Security benefits of spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive their own government pensions.”
The bill would repeal this provision and restore full Social Security benefits.
HOW IS THE BILL PROGRESSING?
To advance the legislation, the bill’s sponsors, Republican Garrett Graves of Louisiana and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, used a rarely successful process called a discharge petition.
They collected the minimum 218 signatures needed from House lawmakers to dislodge the bill from committee and send it to a vote.
The move is often seen as an affront to House leaders, particularly the House Speaker and Majority Leader who determine the session schedule.
But Spanberger and Graves – who did not seek re-election – had little to lose. Additionally, Johnson supported the bill before becoming president.
HOW DID THE CONSERVATIVES BLOCK IT?
Two leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus intervened when the rest of Congress was absent from the Capitol, mostly in home states for Election Day.
Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., and former chairman Rep. Bob Goode, R-Va., took advantage of a routine pro forma session of the House Tuesday to quickly file a part of the measurement.
The Freedom Caucus tends to block new spending. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would add some $196 billion to the federal deficit over a decade.
Graves said that’s the amount people are missing without restoring full Social Security benefits.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
By tabling this bill, the Conservatives have effectively backed down on the procedural rule, but not on the bill itself.
The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the House anyway, perhaps in the coming week.
That said, adoption will now be more difficult, requiring a supermajority threshold rather than a simple majority as had been anticipated under the rule that Freedom Caucus leaders waived.
WHO WOULD BENEFIT IF THE BILL PASSED?
The summary said the legislation, if approved, would repeal provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for people who receive other benefits, such as a state or local government pension.
It says the bill also eliminates the “windfall elimination provision” which “in certain cases reduces Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer who does not ‘did not withhold social security taxes.’
If passed by the House, it is unclear whether the bill will have enough support to be approved by the Senate. But the wide margin in the House indicates potentially broad support.
He would then go to President Joe Biden’s office. If enacted, the summary states the changes will take effect for benefits payable after December 2023.
