A fight to restore Social Security benefits for tens of thousands of public employees in Maine dragged on for more than 20 years before Congress and President Joe Biden rather quickly put an end to it Sunday.
The Social Security Fairness Act did not consistently draw headlines over the past two decades but was the basis of a flood of calls and emails from educators, first responders, government employees and their spouses to members of Congress. Even state lawmakers like Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, heard about the issue quite often from constituents.
The law did not finally pass as a result of some backroom deal or dramatic compromise. Instead, it was sustained advocacy from public employees, unions and retirees, according to supporters.
It ends two provisions in place for more than 40 years — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. The former reduced Social Security benefits by up to half for people who earned a pension working for a government agency but paid into the system. The latter reduced survivor benefits by up to two-thirds for workers who receive public pensions.
The new law’s sudden passage caught various retirees off guard. Steve Ocean, a retired teacher and special education administrator from the town of Washington in Knox County, said he was aware of the policies enacted under former presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan when he moved to Maine in 1989 and had planned accordingly for retirement.
“I never expected it to happen,” Ocean said of the new law.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chaired a Senate committee in 2003 that held the first hearing on these Social Security policies, but no real progress came until 21 years later when Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, and more than 300 other lawmakers signed what is known as a discharge petition this past September to finally force a floor vote.
The House passed it by a 327-75 margin in November. The Senate, which already had a companion bill led by Collins and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, passed the House version 76-20 in December. Maine’s entire congressional delegation supported it, and Biden made it law Sunday in one of his final bill-signing ceremonies as president.
“I know he felt very good about it,” Collins said Monday in an interview while recalling a conversation with the outgoing president at the signing ceremony. “I was elated that a bill that I worked on for so long was becoming law.”
Defenders of the Social Security offsets said they removed an unintended “windfall” for public employees. Those employees and their advocates said they were unfairly losing benefits they had earned through their hard work. More than 30,000 Mainers were among the more than 2 million Americans affected by the offsets last year.
“I’ve never heard anyone reach out and try to defend this policy, and I wouldn’t care what they say, to be honest with you,” Golden said in a Monday interview. “Why shouldn’t they get their Social Security?”
Reversing the “windfall” provision will give around 2.5 million Social Security recipients an extra $360 per month on average, while scrapping the Government Pension Offset will increase monthly benefits starting in December by an average of $700 for 380,000 spouses and by $1,190 for 390,000 surviving spouses, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Most of the opposition to the changes came from Republicans with cost concerns. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the new law will add about $195 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade. In her counterargument, Collins acknowledged the long-term Social Security solvency issues.
“But it’s not fair to make [Social Security beneficiaries] suffer a disproportionate consequence and an inequity as a way of trying to delay the debate on the solvency of the system,” Collins said in a Monday interview.
Collins and Golden each credited persistent pressure and calls from a coalition of labor groups and public workers who shared their personal stories with legislators. Golden also cited the adoption several years ago of the “290 Rule” that guarantees House votes on bills with at least 290 cosponsors.
Maria Libby, superintendent of the Five Town Community School District and MSAD 28 in the Camden and Rockland area, qualifies for Social Security benefits after working more than a decade in the private sector before entering public education. After repeatedly discussing the Social Security offsets with colleagues for years, Libby was grateful for the new law.
“Without it, those working years in the private sector would hold no value for my retirement,” Libby added.
Those owed benefits from the repeal of the two provisions will receive them retroactive to January 2024. The Social Security Administration said beneficiaries don’t need to take any action to receive the enhanced payments other than verifying that the agency has their current mailing address and direct deposit information. Those who had not previously filed for Social Security can schedule an appointment or file online at ssa.gov/apply.
Golden said the years of advocacy with no immediate results epitomize how things often work in Congress — for better or worse.
“They had to have reached a point where a lot of people were like, ‘Congress is never going to fix this,’” Golden said. “And then very rapidly, in one year’s time and in the 11th hour of a Congress that’s about to essentially expire, it just suddenly gets done.”
