Update on H.R. 82

Dear LRTA Members,

I am sorry to report that, once again, Congress has failed to act on the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).

As you may recall, State Rep. Mike Johnson previously reached out to LRTA and to other organizations representing public service retirees to form a coalition to fight this unfair law. Through him I learned about a rally in Washington D.C. held by the National WEP/GPO Repeal Task Force in May 2022. I attended the rally and met some of the hard-working activists from across the country who have been devoted to this issue for years. I was invited to join the task force and have been meeting with them weekly since.

During this time, we made many strides toward our goal of full repeal. In addition to your responses to our calls to action, I personally spent time every day emailing, tweeting, posting on Facebook and calling legislators. The task force was very active and constantly had to rethink and strategize because of all the ways Congress finds to avoid their own procedures. Despite this, we never gave up and we have come further than we ever have, adding new activists to our Task Force and raising awareness with Congress members, the public and with our own affected members.

We will continue our efforts with the 118th Congress. I am proud to say we have continued support from our Louisiana delegation. State Rep. Mike Johnson is also still active in the effort by working with us and our legislators. We anticipate a bill will be filed by Congress soon that will address repealing the GPO and WEP.

LRTA members are well-represented, and, with your help, we will continue our efforts. Of course, that means starting all over again, getting cosponsors, contacting legislators, etc. But, we will have a renewed effort, even stronger than before, that will need everyone’s help to bring awareness to the need for the full repeal of the WEP and GPO!

Sincerely,

Janis Hernandez (janishernandez@hotmail.com)

Legislative Chairperson

We feel these methods are the best means to still get the repeal bills passed.

THE UPDATED PLAN

1. We will ask House leaders to place H.R. 82 (House) and S. 1302 (Senate) in their end-of-year omnibus bills. (An omnibus bill is a hefty bill covering diverse topics, often used to clump a range of appropriations bills into a single bill that must pass before the session is over. Also, many smaller appropriations bills do not move forward as a fiscal year (FY) ends, which is the case for this year. Correspondingly, the FY 2023 budget must be finalized very soon; thus, this will transpire during the lame-duck session.)

2. We will ask Ways & Means Committee members to sign the H.R. 82 Discharge Petition and help move the bill to the House omnibus end-of-year spending/consolidation bill.

3. We will also ask Senate Committee on Finance members to cosponsor S. 1302 and move the bill to the Senate omnibus end-of-year spending/consolidation bill.

Below you will find all the specific actions you should take to support our plans.

Instructions: Please copy and paste the body of the email message below, adding your name at the end. Send the corresponding email message to the email addresses listed for each step. Note: the email addresses listed are for the staffers/legislative directors of the members of Congress.

1. House Leaders: OMNIBUS BILL

Required Subject Header
Please place H.R. 82 on end-of-year omnibus bills.

Email Message

Honorable House Leaders,

I urge you to address the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These penalties have taken our earned Social Security and spousal benefits for 40 years. We need the leadership to encourage members to sign H. Res. 1367 and work with the Senate Finance Committee to put WEP and GPO repeal into an omnibus. A Discharge Petition was filed for H.R. 82 through a special rule, H. Res. 1367, to trigger a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021. We are counting on congressional leadership to act on the voice of the American people and 305 of their elected officials to bring repeal of the WEP and GPO to law.

The WEP and GPO are earned benefits that retirees have paid for. The WEP penalizes the earned benefits of public service workers by as much as 50%. Whereas the GPO eliminates the earned Social Security benefits of a surviving spouse who worked as an educator in 15 states.

The nation has been seeing an exodus of teachers that are either leaving the profession or retiring earlier than planned. The repeal of these two offsets is an important step to help to turn the tide in favor of teachers remaining in the classroom.

Now is the time to take action to repeal these two unjust penalties. As a leader and ask you who move this issue to the forefront by including H.R. 82 in an Omnibus bill.

Respectfully submitted,

Staffer Email List

dick.meltzer@mail.house.gov
Kara.getz@mail.house.gov
James.Leuschen@mail.house.gov
Willie.lyles@mail.house.gov
Zoe.Oreck@mail.house.gov
David.davis@mail.house.gov
Trevor.smith@mail.house.gov

2. House Ways and Means Committee: OMNIBUS BILL

Required Subject Header
Please place H.R. 82 on end-of-year omnibus bills

Email Message

Honorable Ways and Means Committee member,

I urge you to address the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These penalties have taken our earned Social Security and spousal benefits for 40 years. A Discharge Petition was filed for H.R. 82 through a special rule, H. Res. 1367, to trigger a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021.We need the members of the Ways and Means Committee member to help move repeal forward by signing H. Res. 1367 and work with the Senate Finance Committee to put WEP and GPO repeal into an omnibus. We are counting on our elected officials to act on the voice of the American people and 305 of their elected officials to bring a repeal of the WEP and GPO to law.

Now is the time to take action to repeal these two unjust penalties. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, we thank those of you who have co-sponsored H.R 82 and ask those of you who have not to please co-sponsor H.R 82 and move this issue to the forefront by including H.R. 82 in an Omnibus bill.

Respectfully submitted,

Staffer Email List

Kara.getz@mail.house.gov
Cody.willming@mail.house.gov
Ellen.hamilton@mail.house.gov
Mark.dennin@mail.house.gov
Ben.kan@mail.house.gov
Dylan.sodaro@mail.house.gov
Lyndsey.barnes@mail.house.gov
Jon.Bosworth@mail.house.gov
Rob.Nuttall@mail.house.gov
Chris.goldson@mail.house.gov
Philipp.clarke@mail.house.gov
Nicolas.oboyle@mail.house.gov
alex.stepahin@mail.house.gov
Adam.cissell@mail.house.gov
Rachel.harvey@mail.house.gov
Rachel.Kline@mail.house.gov
Luke.wallwork@mail.house.gov
Eliana.goodman@mail.house.gov
Theresa.chalhoub@mail.house.gov

3. Senate Finance Committee: OMNIBUS BILL

Required Subject Header
Please include S.1302 in the end-of-year omnibus bill.

Email Message

Honorable Senate Committee on Finance Members,

I am asking members of the Senate Finance Committee for your support to move S. 1302 – Social Security Fairness Act (Brown -OH, Collins-MA) forward by including in an omnibus during the lame duck session. This bi-partisan bill would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) penalties that financially harm millions of retirees across our great nation.

Now is the time to take action to repeal these two unjust penalties. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, we thank those of you who have co-sponsored S. 1302 and ask those of you who have not to please co-sponsor S. 1302 to move this issue to the forefront by including H.R. 82 in an Omnibus bill.

Respectfully submitted,

Staffer Email List

L auren_obrien@young.senate.gov
Sarah_peery@portman.senate.gov
Katie_hadji@cassidy.senate.gov
Sarah_seitz@lankford.senate.gov
Patrick_lehman@sasse.senate.gov
Molly_carpenter@crapo.senate.gov
Jeremy_hekhuis@brown.senate.gov
Sarah_Bittleman@wyden.senate.gov
Amy_friedman@bennet.senate.gov
Derek_miller@casey.senate.gov
Dave_Christie@hassan.senate.gov