Get More Co-sponsors!
H.R. 82 Has Gotten 128 Co-signers for Repeal in One Month!
The Social Security Fairness Act to repeal WEP and GPO, H.R. 82 (same number as last year) was introduced a month ago by Garret Graves, Republican Congressman from Louisiana, and co-sponsored again by Abigail Spanberger, Democrat from Virginia. Our team from ssfairness.org is working with the National WEP/GPO Repeal Task Force to coordinate the effort for repeal with our Congressional offices. The sponsors expect that a Social Security Fairness bill will be introduced in the Senate by the end of this month.
The message to us now from the H.R. 82 sponsors is:
GET MORE CO-SPONSORS!
Here is a link to track the progress of the bill in the House of Representatives:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/82/cosponsors
You can sort the list “from last to first” to see if your Rep. has recently signed on. Make your case by email, by phone and at both their District and D.C. offices.
If they are already on there, send a thank you, and, as with all good communication, give them your best shot. Compose one good sentence to explain how unfair your penalty is. Here are some samples:
- I was never told my Social Security retirement benefits would not be what the yearly notices from the SSA said they would be.
- I was dependent on my spouse for many years before becoming a teacher. Now my partial pension eliminates ALL my spousal/survivor benefits.
- My pension is not enough to live on, AND the WEP/GPO eliminates most/all of the Social Security benefits I paid for.
- Losing all Social Security survivor benefits has made me sell my home and move away from my family and friends.
- In my divorce I had to give my husband half my pension, but now I can’t get any of the Social Security spousal retirement benefits our joint income paid for.
If we want top quality employees providing public services, we need to stop punishing them when they retire! Repeal the WEP and GPO! Thank you.