Update 12/17/24: The U.S. House passed the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 on Nov. 12, 2024 and the bill has moved to the Senate for consideration. The article continues as originally published below.
Ahead of the 2024 general election, Social Security was a top issue for American voters.
Now, posts circulating on social media after Election Day claim House Republicans are trying to slash the Social Security benefits that millions of retirees and people with disabilities rely on.
Viral posts on X claim House Republicans introduced a bill to reduce Social Security payments for Americans who receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer.
Several VERIFY readers emailed and texted us to ask if that’s true.
THE QUESTION
Have House Republicans introduced a bill that would reduce Social Security payments for people who receive pensions or disability benefits?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, House Republicans have not introduced a bill that would reduce Social Security payments for people who receive pensions or disability benefits.
WHAT WE FOUND
Claims that House Republicans introduced a bill that would reduce Social Security payments for people who receive pensions or disability benefits are false.
The false claims misrepresent a bipartisan bill aimed at getting rid of current rules that reduce Social Security benefits for some people who receive pensions, which are also known as retirement plans, or disability benefits from their employers. These provisions have been in place since the 1980s.
Some House Republicans moved to table that bipartisan bill on Election Day, which means the current rules are still in place. But they didn’t introduce any new legislation that would have further reduced Social Security benefits for anyone, a search of Congress.gov shows.
The bill that the false online claims are referring to is H.R. 82, which is also known as the Social Security Fairness Act.
That bill would have repealed two provisions that reduce Social Security payments for some people who receive other benefits: the government pension offset (GPO) and the windfall elimination provision (WEP). The bill has bipartisan support, with more than 300 cosponsors, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The GPO can reduce Social Security benefits to spouses, widows and widowers who receive their own government pensions, the Social Security Administration (SSA) explains.
The WEP can reduce Social Security benefits for people who receive pensions or disability benefits from employers that do not withhold Social Security taxes from their paychecks. These employers can include government agencies, the SSA says.
But some House Republicans blocked the Social Security Fairness Act from moving forward on Election Day.
On Tuesday, Nov. 5, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.) presided over a brief pro forma session of the House that lasted about seven minutes.
During that session, a request from Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) to lay on the table the Social Security Fairness Act was agreed to by unanimous consent, C-SPAN video shows.
Under House rules, “laying a bill on the table is the same as defeating a measure on the floor,” C-SPAN says. In other words, the bill is dead for now.
But that doesn’t mean the Social Security Fairness Act can’t be revived. According to C-SPAN, “the bill could still be called up for a vote under discharge procedures,” which allow House members to bring a bill to the floor for consideration under certain circumstances.
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