Louisiana Voice

It’s literally been years, no, decades, in the making but it finally passed in a Congress that seemed so divided that nothing could, other than finger-pointing and sham investigations, ever be accomplished.

But occasionally, they get it right, even if it takes a while.

Even Foghorn Leghorn Kennedy and Clay Higgins were on board for this one. It doesn’t get any more bipartisan than to see Higgins, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise and Troy Carter vote alike on the same issue.

I am, of course, talking about House Resolution 82 that has been kicking around for years without ever being brought up for a vote despite at one time having enough co-sponsors to override a presidential veto should it have been necessary.

Passage of the bill will repeal both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The WEP, enacted in 1983, reduced Social Security benefits of workers who received government pensions not covered by Social Security. The GPO, enacted in 1977, reduced benefits for spouses, widows and widowers whose spouses received public sector pensions.

H.R. 82’s passage is of a monumental for Louisiana’s state employees who also worked in the private sector and for school teachers whose spouses likewise worked in the private sector and paid into Social Security.

State employees who also logged time in the private sector heretofore were penalized by an offset to their Social Security benefits. With the passage of H.R. 82, that will no longer be the case.

Teachers, school bus drivers and cafeteria workers were perhaps the most penalized of all. A school employee whose spouse who paid into Social Security while working in the private sector for decades, was ineligible to draw survivor benefits upon the spouse’s death. That, too, has now changed for the better.

Louisiana’s senior U.S. Sen., Bill Cassidy, said his former high school civics teacher was unjustly penalized because she spent her life as a public school teacher. “When her husband, who had worked at an Exxon refinery, passed away…her Social Security was cut to a fraction because she had worked in the public sector as a teacher,” he said, adding that she would have received better benefits in retirement “if she had never worked at all.”

Passage of the bill will increase benefits for more than 70,000 people in Louisiana and for more than 2 million Americans overall.

H.R. 82 was first introduced in 2005 and even though a number of House members signed on as co-sponsors sufficient to override any potential presidential veto, the bill inexplicably was never brought to a House floor vote, leading many observers to believe it was all just for show.

The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House, by a 327-75 vote on Nov. 12 and likewise passed the Senate on Dec. 20 by a 76-20 vote.

The Retired State Employees Association (RESA) and the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association (LRTA) have been lobbying for years for passage of H.R. 82.

LRTA Executive Director Rodney Watson specifically cited U.S. Rep. Garret Graves for helping the resolution’s passage, saying, “This epic two-year journey was championed by Congressman Garrett (sic) Graves whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude!

“I want to thank Janis Hernandez (LRTA Federal Legislative Chair) for her relentless efforts at participating and keeping the ball rolling on this project. We have shared many day and night, weekday and weekend conversations on reacting to a political volleyball that could have killed this bill at any point during the legislative process.”

Watson said that during his 10 years as executive director of LRTA, “we have moved from state resolutions, to proposed statute that gained little steam, to a full-blown bipartisan effort that will finally compensate millions of Americans who have suffered financially for years.”

He said that last-minute “shenanigans” to tack amendments onto the bill “that would have slowed the process to kill it, failed. Attaching H.R. 82 in its original form to the budget bill at the last minute was an act of genius and could have easily failed if it had not been for the bipartisan support built by the advocacy of our membership and organizations nationwide.”

Frank Jobert, legislative affairs director for the Retired State Employees Association (RSEA), was equally appreciative of the bill’s final passage after what he described as a 30-year effort.

“First of all, on behalf of RSEA and myself, congratulations to all government employees/retirees, who will finally receive the Social Security benefits they earned and deserve. Passage of H.R. 82 by Rep. Garret Graves, (R-District 6-LA) author of the “Social Security Fairness Act of 2023,” was long overdue and was a complete team effort. No one individual can take credit for the success of this bill, as it was a totally united group throughout the state of Louisiana. The bill is expected to be signed at 9:00 AM CST by President Biden on Monday, January 6, 2025 at The White House.

“The entire Louisiana Congressional Delegation (House and Senate): the leadership, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Steve Scalise (House Majority Leader) unanimously voted for passage of HR 82. We were also encouraged by the leadership of Speaker Pro Temp, Rep. Mike Johnson, (District 27-Pineville) who organized and coordinated the Louisiana Retirement Systems and Retiree Associations throughout Louisiana and the rest of the United States. 

 “It was a battle that began approximately 30 years ago (my first exposure to the problem was in 1994 as a member of the LASERS Board of Trustees). It seemed that every year for the last 30 years, someone from Louisiana or one of the other states would introduce legislation to repeal the WEP and/or GPO. We were led to believe that the legislation would never pass because of the cost to the Social Security System. But I was always encouraged by the fact that it was bi-partisan legislation that impacted about 15 states, some of which were large and very populated states, such as, California, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, and of course, Louisiana, etc.

“I never gave up hope that we would get some relief at some point, whether partial of full repeal. In spite of “failure” year after year, we never said NEVER. The stars were finally aligned this last session of the 118th Congress and with the help of Senate President Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the aforementioned Louisiana Senate and House delegations, and bipartisan (Democrat and Republican), we crossed the finish line with a victory. Hopefully, our Louisiana government employees and/or retirees will see relief and the added benefits to their Social Security checks in the not-too-distant future!

“Thanks again to all who participated in this democratic process, we fought the good fight and are now victorious!!”