Guarding Readiness Resources Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about commitment--commitment across our Nation--in each of our States and towns and cities and in the villages in Alaska, and the men and women who have made a commitment to their neighbors and to strangers and to the broader community. These are our teachers. They are our nurses. They are our firefighters, emergency responders, and police--public servants who manage applications for Federal and State benefits like SNAP, unemployment, and disaster assistance. They ensure that our elections are well run. They get our streets paved and plowed. They have made their commitment to serve. And for many of these public servants, their States have opted out of Social Security, and so they are not paying into the system.
But many of them have had other jobs in the past or will have other jobs in the future. These are jobs that will require them to contribute into Social Security. In many cases, they have contributed to Social Security for an entire career before taking on a job in public service. And then, when they retire--when folks retire, you assume that the Social Security benefits that you have paid into you are going to be receiving. These are benefits that people are entitled to receive, benefits that they are entitled to as the spouse or the survivor or both.
But for decades now, the commitment that these public servants have given to their communities and to our Nation has been returned with two acronyms that have had devastating consequences for, unfortunately, far too many Americans: GPO and WEP. For many in my State of Alaska, these are like swear words--GPO and WEP, government pension offset and windfall elimination provision.
The Social Security benefits of spouses, widows, and widowers were first cut by the GPO in 1977. Then, in 1983, Congress went after the benefits of the retirees themselves with the WEP. These two provisions have been responsible for reducing Social Security benefits from hard- working Americans who have earned them and then from their spouses, widows, and widowers.
And it is in Alaska where the highest number per capita of teachers and public employees are impacted. So when you look at the map of the United States and those areas where you have the highest negative impact from the WEP provision and the GPO provision, it is, unfortunately, in my home State of Alaska.
And it might not sound like a lot--15,156 Alaskans who are impacted by either GPO or WEP or both. These are all their stories. These are all individual Alaskans who have stories about how this has impacted them--like the retired teacher who is just one paycheck away from homelessness because, after serving for years as a teacher, she lost two-thirds of her earned Social Security benefits because of WEP; or the young Alaska widow who is in dire financial straits following her husband's recent unexpected death, simply because of GPO or WEP; or the senior citizen who taught for over 25 years, then turned to commercial fishing, and then he worked for BLM and the U.S. Forest Service--this is a career track that you see with a lot of Alaskans. His Social Security was cut by over 30 percent. So now, at 82 years old, he is still working to make ends meet. This is not retirement, folks.
These aren't hypotheticals. These are real stories from Alaskans who have reached out to me asking me, as their Senator, to help them. I have been hearing from these folks for the entire tenure that I have been here in the U.S. Senate--hearing about the disparate impact on Alaskans, hearing about the inequity, the unfairness: I have earned these benefits, and yet I am not able to receive the full benefit. Where is the fairness in that?
And so I have not just listened to my constituents; I have responded and stepped forward. In every single Congress since I have been here in the U.S. Senate, I have cosponsored legislation to eliminate GPO and WEP, and proudly so. But it has been very frustrating because, over these 22 years now, I have got constituents who are saying: This is happening to me in realtime right now.
And I have to say: This is hard. This formula is not right. We get it. We have got to address it, but this is going to be expensive. So until we are able to do more wholesale reforms, I don't know how we are going to be able to help you in the Senate.
That is not a satisfying answer to that teacher, to that firefighter, and to that widow.
So I was so pleased to be able to cast my vote yesterday to move to passage of the Social Security Fairness Act. I am proud that 72 of us here in the Senate joined together, and I am truly looking forward to final passage of this important measure before I return home.
And when I get home, I will be able to tell school districts that you are going to have a better chance. It is going to be a little bit easier for you to recruit and retain good teachers and principals because the disincentive to work in a State that is impacted by GPO and WEP is going to be gone for us in Alaska.
I will also be able to tell firefighters and the police and EMS responders that they are not going to have the burden of knowing that their retirement is going to be less secure or their spouse's retirement will be less secure after years of putting themselves on the line in service to our communities.
And I will be able to tell my neighbors and the folks I meet in the grocery store and in the community meetings that their service is not more of a sacrifice than it should be.
I am proud of the work that we have been able to do on behalf of Alaskans and for over 800,000 Americans in other States who are affected by GPO and the over 2 million people in the States who are impacted by WEP.
In the next Congress, it is going to be up to all of us to look at Social Security's solvency from a larger perspective, to work on it, debate on it, and vote on ways to ensure that this vital retirement program is going to continue to ensure that Americans are able to retire with dignity and security.
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