WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) announced today that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Social Security and Public Servants: Ensuring Equal Treatment” on Tuesday, March 22 at 10:00 AM in room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building. At the hearing, members will discuss two Social Security provisions that unfairly penalize public employees and consider proposals for calculating public employees’ benefits more fairly.

Upon announcing the hearing, Chairman Johnson said:

“Social Security should treat everyone fairly, but right now it doesn’t for firefighters, police officers, and teachers. That’s wrong. These Americans who have dedicated themselves to public service deserve better. When it comes to these public servants’ benefits, Social Security should treat them fairly rather than arbitrarily.”

BACKGROUND
The hearing will focus on two provisions that affect the Social Security benefits paid to certain public employees, as well as proposals to create a fairer benefit calculation. These two provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset – apply arbitrary reductions to the Social Security benefits paid to public employees who also receive a government pension. In addition, these benefit adjustments are not well understood, making it difficult for those affected to plan for retirement. Ways and Means members are working to replace the unfair WEP with a proportional approach that allows Social Security benefits to be calculated in the same way for everyone, instead of using one benefit formula for some workers and a different formula for others. For more information, about the committee’s efforts, click here.

Hearing Advisory

Public Submissions For Record
Please click here to submit a statement or letter for the record