WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a bill that could restore Social Security benefits to more than three million Americans, including hardworking folks here in Western Pennsylvania.
The Senate has until Friday to vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, before the clock resets and the process begins all over again. If passed, it would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).
The two provisions reduce Social Security benefits for nearly three million Americans, mostly public servants, who received a pension from a job which did not pay Social Security taxes. The bill passed the House of Representatives in November with overwhelming, bipartisan support.
Ron Bonasso, a local, retired Postal Worker has been affected by the WEP and continues to work two jobs in his 70s to make ends meet.
“I’m just trying to make ends meet here - it’s been no picnic,” Bonasso tells 11 Investigates. “There’s a whole bunch of us who have been retired all these years – who have gotten screwed by Social Security.”
Despite paying into Social Security for years, Bonasso cannot collect that money.
Senator, Jon Ossoff from Georgia said folks have been unfairly penalized by bad legislation in the past.
“That’s why we’re working to pass this legislation. To strengthen the retirement benefits for teachers, firefighters and first responders.”
However, a group of senate republicans have been fighting the effort to pass the change in law before the end of the year.
“It is something we need to fix but this is not the way to fix it,” Senator Thom Thillis (R- NC) said.
The Republican Senator from North Carolina says he worries about the 200-billion-dollar cost of the bill to the Social Security trust fund.
“Know that you are making the job harder to fix the trust fund that is ten years of going insolvent,” Sen. Tillis (R- NC) said.
The chance of the Senate passing the bill is strong; however, the Senate is on a time crunch and with all of the bills they are up against, they must get this done tomorrow. Senators who oppose this could use procedural methods to prevent a vote.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2024 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
