By Daisy Brown, Legislative Liaison, TSCL
Seniors have cause to rejoice. The Social Security Fairness Act, a bipartisan bill long in the making, finally passed the U.S. Senate and was signed by the President on January 6th after a grueling legislative process. We’ve covered the bill here before in the Advisor because TSCL endorses it and has made a concerted effort to help get it passed. The bill would eliminate two rules that reduce payments to retirees who have public pensions—like police officers, teachers, and firefighters—and their surviving spouses and family members.
While this bill obviously sounds fair, certain members of Congress fought it tooth and nail at every step of the legislative process. It was introduced in the House all the way back in January 2023 and received strong bipartisan support. However, it remained stuck in committee until September 2024, when its sponsors (Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Garret Graves) filed what’s called a discharge position. Signed by 218 members of Congress, the petition forced the Speaker of the House to call a vote within seven legislative days. In retaliation for the discharge petition, which is a rare motion that expidites the standard legislative system, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delayed the vote as long as he could. He took advantage of a recess between the petition’s passage and the presidential election, forcing us to wait until November for a vote. The bill passed the House on November 12, which created a whole new problem. With a new Congress incoming, the Senate only had until the end of 2024 to revise the bill, pass its version, and negotiate with the House on reconciliation. Luckily, in a rare show of functionality, the Senate was able to step up and finish the job. It passed the Social Security Fairness Act on December 21, and President Biden signed it into law on January 6th.
This represents a massive win for seniors, TSCL, and Congress itself. The bill will secure fairer payments for millions of today’s and tomorrow’s seniors who dedicated their professional lives to serving their communities.
For TSCL, it’s a sign that our advocacy works. Throughout the legislative process, we regularly met with Representative Spanberger’s and Representative Grave’s offices to discuss the strategy for bringing a bill to a vote. Letters from TSCL supporters across the country helped nudge Congress to vote.
For Congress, this bill is a sign that we can overcome gridlock for topics that really matter. Even though certain factions threw everything they could at this popular bill to stop it from
becoming law, it prevailed. Now, the next step is to keep going. At TSCL, we urge Congress to take advantage of this momentum and push serious Social Security reform. The first two issues to tackle? If you ask us, it’s the declining buying power of monthly benefits and the program’s flagging long-term financial health.
