Rep. Garret Graves escalates effort to repeal Social Security penalty for teachers, police

Louisiana Republican Congressman Garret Graves escalated his latest effort to eliminate the Social Security penalty for teachers, police and other workers who also have government pensions, announcing he and Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger have secured 291 cosponsors as they press for a House vote.

“What we’re working on right now is about righting a wrong, addressing an injustice that has been around since the late 1970s and early 1980s," said Graves, who 6th Congressional District includes Baton Rouge and the bayou region.

The 1980s-era Windfall Elimination Penalty (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) prevent government retirees like police, teachers, firefighters, state workers and their spouses who earned pensions from those careers from collecting their full Social Security benefits earned while working outside of government.

Repealing WEP and GPO would increase Social Security benefits for more than 2 million Americans, including 10s of thousands in Louisiana.

Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow and others in the state delegation have joined Graves' in the decades-long attempt to eliminate WEP and GPO, while Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is leading the effort in the upper chamber.

Letlow testified this week in favor of Graves' and Spanberger's House Resolution 82, which sponsors call the Social Security Fairness Act, during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, the panel that has jurisdiction over the bill.

"I'm doing everything we possibly can to get HR 82 across finish line," Letlow said on a video she posted on X, where she called the current rules "unjust."

Letlow, who represents the 5th Congressional District with Monroe as the population hub, has said Louisiana would get the seventh greatest benefit among states if the current law was repealed.

She said her office received 3,000 constituent calls during her first year in Congress asking her to support changing the law, the most concerning any issue.

Supporters of the bill thought they had secured enough support last summer to forcer a vote on the House floor, but blamed a procedural maneuver from former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi for stalling the vote in Ways and Means.

Graves and Spanberger were forced to start from scratch in the new Congress and reintroduced the bill in February. Graves is close to current Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which could help finally trigger a vote.

During a press conference this week Graves said his strategy is to continue to build momentum by gathering co-sponsors.

"My perspective is the best bet is to continue driving up this number and get as many co-sponsors as we can and continue to work with the Way and Means Committee to get their cooperation," he said.

Opponents of the effort to remove WEP and GPO restrictions argue that repealing the current law will increase the strain already placed on Social Security and its future viability.

The Social Security Board of Trustees has said Social Security will become insolvent in in 2035.

Graves has said the current law discourages people from entering public service professions.

"The WEP and GPO are severe penalties that defund public servants of much of their lifetime of retirement earnings," he said. "The last thing in the world we need to be doing now is defunding teachers, firefighters, police officers and other local and state public servants.

"We're penalizing people who go into public service. This is wrong and unjust. It just doesn't make sense."

More: Rep. Garret Graves opts out of Louisiana governor race, but loose ends remain

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Graves ups effort to repeal Social Security penalty for government retirees