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Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, before the Thanksgiving holiday, my colleagues--we--voted late into the night. And I have no problem with that if we are voting on meaningful legislation. But that is not what we have been doing. We are voting on last-minute, lameduck Biden-Harris judicial nominees.

But we have serious legislation for millions of Americans that the House overwhelmingly passed in mid-November, sent to the Senate, and it is waiting for a vote.

I am speaking of the Social Security Fairness Act, which repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset--WEP and GPO. This is something which affects my State of Louisiana and affects the President of the Senate's State of California. We are particularly affected, but so are others--Texas and Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, New Jersey--I could go down the list-- both blue States and red States.

It recognizes, first, that Social Security is a sacred trust between generations; a promise to workers that when they retire, they will not live in poverty. But right now, Social Security's future is in danger. According to the people who run this program, if Social Security does nothing, the Social Security trust fund would be busted in 9 years-- flat bankrupt.

And then there will be an automatic 20- to 24-percent cut in benefits for everyone receiving Social Security and for those who will receive it in the future. Someone once said: Well, won't I be grandfathered in?

And she was a female, so I said: I think you mean ``grandmothered'' in, but it doesn't matter. No, if you are already on Social Security, you get a 24-percent cut.

So I will state here, we must save, strengthen, and secure Social Security. And I am pleased to say there is a plan to do so.

But one thing, what we cannot do as we work to save Social Security is perpetuate an unfairness, an unjustness--an unjustness that began decades ago. This unfairness targets people who have dedicated their lives to serving communities on the State and local level, such as first responders and teachers.

So, today, we can take a step toward that fairness. We can repeal two unfair Social Security provisions with the Social Security Fairness Act if the majority leader schedules a vote. WEP and GPO penalize families--and I have already mentioned particularly in States like Louisiana, California, Maine, Texas--who have worked a public service job for part of their career with a separate pension from Social Security.

We are talking about first responders, the police officers, the firefighters but also the teachers and other public employees who are being punished for serving their communities.

How did we get here? WEP and GPO were introduced decades ago to address perceived inequalities in the Social Security system, but they have had the opposite effect of creating real, tangible inequalities.

When my firefighters, police officers, and teachers in Louisiana have a second job or second career or get married, they are being unfairly punished, receiving far less from Social Security than if they had never worked in public service at all, and that is not right.

WEP reduces the earned Social Security benefits of individuals who also receive a pension from a non-Social Security government job. This has resulted in thousands who have paid into the system during their careers receiving a significantly reduced Social Security benefit when they retire.

GPO reduces earned Social Security spousal or survivor benefits for individuals who also receive a government pension.

This provision can reduce or even eliminate the Social Security benefits that a spouse or widow might have expected and relied upon. Public servant spouses would receive more than if they had never worked at all. Let me repeat that. If you have a teacher married to someone who has a great job, he dies, she doesn't receive but a fraction of the Social Security benefit that she would have received from her husband's Social Security benefit.

As a guy who used to work in a hospital for the uninsured run by the State, I worked a lot with nurses, I consistently hear from the people I worked with and from constituents that they feel like they are being punished for serving community, and that is in Louisiana, but it is for public servants across the country who feel the exact same way.

WEP and GPO affect Americans in every single State, and there is no excuse to treat our public servants this way. It should never have become law, but we have an opportunity to fix it. In mid-November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Social Security Fairness Act. As a longtime original cosponsor of the Senate version, I have been waiting to proudly vote yes and finally repeal WEP and GPO.

Instead, day after day, Senate Democrats have focused their attention on ramming through partisan nominees rather than passing serious legislation. And if it sounds like I am frustrated, I am. We owe it to every public servant who has taught our kids, protected our streets, run into a burning building, and more to pass this bill.

The time for theater is through. It is time to get serious and vote on legislation that matters. I am ready to vote yes on the Social Security Fairness Act and repeal WEP and GPO for people in Louisiana and for Americans across the country.

So I call upon the majority leader to schedule a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, and I urge colleagues to join in support of it.

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