WASHINGTON app The Senate is pushing toward a vote on to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the , which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.
Schumer said the bill would appensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in public service.app
The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the bill introduced last year gained 62 cosponsors. But the bill still needs support from at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then head to President Biden.
At least one Republican senator who signed onto similar legislation last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he was still appweighingapp whether to vote for the bill next week.
appNothing ever gets paid for, so if itapps further indebtedness, I donappt know,app he said.
Decades in the making, the bill would repeal two federal policies app the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset app that broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social Security recipients: people who also receive a pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security and surviving spouses of Social Security recipients who receive a government pension of their own.
The bill would add more strain on the , which were already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. It would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the .
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget also estimates that if passed, the policy would hasten the Social Security programapps insolvency date by about half a year as well as reduce lifetime Social Security benefits by an additional $25,000 for a typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033.
Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in leadership, acknowledged that the policy has strong bipartisan support, but said some Republicans also want to see it appfixed in the context of a broader Social Security reform effort.app
Conservatives have opposed the bill, decrying its cost.
appEven for something that people consider to be a good cause, it shows a lack of concern for the future of the country, so I think it would be a big mistake,app said Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky.
Still, other Republicans have pushed Schumer to bring it up for a vote.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said last month that the current federal limitations apppenalize families across the country who worked a public service job for part of their career with a separate pension. Weappre talking about police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other public employees who are punished for serving their communities.app
He predicted the bill would pass.
