Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, welcomed the Senate's passage of H.R. 743, the Social Security Program Protection Act, last night.
Prior to the Senate vote, the F.O.P. successfully lobbied Senators Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance, to make changes to the legislation as amended and reported by the Committee. Our lobbying efforts on this legislation were completely successful, Canterbury said, and we are grateful to both Chairman Grassley and Senator Baucus for their leadership in responding to the requests of the Fraternal Order of Police with respect to this bill.
The primary aim of the legislation is to crack down on fraud and abuse in Social Security programs by strengthening protections for vulnerable recipients dependent on representative payees to manage their financial affairs, by prohibiting fugitive felons and probation/parole violators from receiving Social Security disability benefits, and by enhancing the ability of the Inspector General to fight fraud. The legislation also included the text of two bills that the F.O.P. strongly supported--S. 37/H.R. 134, which added Kentucky to the list of States permitted to operate a separate retirement system for certain public employees.Despite our view that these changes to current law are beneficial, we had strong reservations about other provisions in the bill which were added during the Finance Committee's mark-up and were unable to support the legislation as reported, Canterbury explained.
We focused our lobbying efforts on getting one section deleted from the bill entirely and restoring the House language in another.The F.O.P. strongly opposed Section 210 and the Committee's version of Section 416. The purpose of Section 210 was to assist the Social Security Administration (SSA) to enforce more vigorously the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), provisions in current law that the F.O.P. is seeking to repeal, not make more effective. Section 416 as amended by the Committee would have extended to all States the authority to operate a divided retirement system for Social Security coverage, potentially opening the door to mandatory participation--a proposal the F.O.P. has vigorously opposed.
The manager's amendment offered by Chairman Grassley reflected both of these changes--a clear victory for the members of the Fraternal Order of Police, Canterbury said, adding that the bill will be returned to the House and considered by that body when it returns to session next year. The F.O.P.'s efforts on H.R. 743 were tangentially related to our efforts on H.R. 594/S. 349, the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal both the WEP and the GPO.Members of the F.O.P. know that the repeal of the WEP and GPO is one of our top legislative priorities, said Canterbury.
We have testified before Congress on numerous occasions on this issue and voiced very strongly our concern that Congress is more interested in finding ways to save money for the Social Security system by cutting benefits earned by State and local employees than it is in addressing the manifest unfairness of the WEP and GPO. Some of the provisions in H.R. 743 seemed to confirm these concerns, so our work on that bill was also part of our overall effort to educate and build support for H.R. 594/S. 349 among Members of Congress.This effort was also a success, as the manager's amendment included not only the changes to the bill consistent with the requests of the Fraternal Order of Police, but also reflected a greater awareness on the part of Congress about the unfairness of the WEP and GPO.
The bill as passed by the Senate included a wholly new provision, Section 419, which requires the annual Social Security Account Statements to more clearly explain the possible effects of the WEP and the GPO on those who may be affected. Further, it would require governmental employers to notify newly hired employees about the impact of the WEP and GPO.It is true that Section 419 will help the Social Security Administration to identify noncovered employees who are subject to WEP and GPO, said Canterbury, but the information provided to the employees who are affected will help ensure that they are not taken by surprise by the benefit cuts when they reach their retirement. In any event, the F.O.P. is committed to repeal the WEP and the GPO, so it is our hope that this provision will not be needed for very long.The Fraternal Order of Police is the largest law enforcement labor organization in the United States, with more than 310,000 members. Chris L. GranbergSenior Legislative Liaison
Fraternal Order of Police
National Legislative Office
309 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002
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(202) 547 - 8190