By Greg Landsman, Congressman (OH-1st District)
Marie Hipple has spent her career putting others first. At 77-years-old, she spends her days teaching at Sinclair College in Mason and her nights tutoring teens. For most of her life, she’s always had a second job to make ends meet.
Like millions of other public retirees, Marie has a pension and Social Security after working in both public service and the private sector. She did everything right and paid into the system, but because of two provisions in the current Social Security law, it’s not returning the favor.
The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset were signed into law in 1983, unfairly penalizing teachers, police officers, firefighters, letter carriers and others. Because these folks contributed to a public pension and Social Security, they aren’t getting all the benefits they rightfully earned.
Marie is ready to move into the next chapter of her life, but after decades of service, she can’t afford to retire. More than 160,000 people across Ohio are facing familiar dilemma.
The Social Security Fairness Act was first introduced in the 107th Congress, more than 20 years ago, and has been reintroduced every Congress since. The bill repeals these two provisions, making sure public retirees get all their money.
Each Congress, it would stall in committee and ultimately go nowhere.
Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Republican Congressman Garret Graves introduced it in the 118th Congress. This time seemed no different, even though it was the most cosponsored bill, from Democrats and Republicans, in Congress.
A couple of major efforts changed the game.
Retired teachers, firefighters, police officers, and letter carriers across the country were calling their members of Congress to take action. In our case, it was a woman named Melissa. She’s a public school teacher who is about to retire and wants this fixed. We started receiving hundreds of other phone calls and heard stories of how the Social Security Fairness Act could change lives.
Then, we introduced the idea of a discharge petition to Congresswoman Spanberger and Congressman Graves. It’s a rare procedure to force a vote in Congress. In September, we helped lead the charge to gathering 218 signatures in only nine days, securing enough support from both parties to force a vote.
After weeks in the district, it was the first vote we took after returning to DC on November 12th and it passed overwhelmingly. We made history.
The bill represents more than just politics to millions of public retirees like Marie and Melissa – it’s their ability to afford groceries, pay rent, and retire with dignity.
As a former teacher and the son of teachers, this issue hits close to home for me. I’ve seen the dedication of public servants. They’ve spent their lives helping others, and it’s time we finally do right by them.
The takeaway? Grassroots advocacy can work. Everyone who called, emailed, or wrote in made a difference. Now, it’s on to the Senate to make it law.