NARFE President Urges House Holdouts to Support Repeal of WEP and GPO
On June 7, NARFE National President Ken Thomas sent letters urging targeted House lawmakers to cosponsor a bill to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), as NARFE’s lobbying team pressed for meetings to discuss the issue. The letters arrived as nearly 1,100 NARFE members across the country contacted the remaining House holdouts, and as local NARFE leaders across the country made requests for meetings, as part of a full court press to secure the additional cosponsors needed to ensure a House floor vote.
Specifically, the letters pressed for cosponsorship of the Social Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82. The bill, introduced January 4, 2021, by Rep. Rodney Davis, R-IL, would fully repeal both the WEP and the GPO. These unfair penalties significantly reduce Social Security benefits for more than 2 million beneficiaries, drastically affecting retirees living on fixed income.
Currently, H.R. 82 has 277 bipartisan cosponsors, 13 shy of the 290 needed to force a House vote. Per recent House rules, any bill that obtains 290 cosponsors may be placed on the House Consensus Calendar, allowing the bill to be considered so long as it maintains those cosponsors (or more) for 25 legislative days.
If you have not yet contacted your member of Congress on this issue, please do so now.
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