The Spanberger-Led Law Provides Long Overdue Fairness for More Than 3.2 Million Americans — Including Tens of Thousands of Virginia Police Officers, Firefighters, & Federal Employees
Her Legislation Repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision & Government Pension Offset
RICHMOND, Va. — CBS19 reported this week that the Social Security Administration (SSA) will begin paying benefits secured by Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act ahead of schedule, delivering hard-earned relief to more than 50,000 Virginians beginning this month.
CBS19: Payments from Spanberger’s SSFA begin to go out
The Social Security Fairness Act, led by former Seventh District Representative Abigail Spanberger, ends two provisions that reduced or eliminated benefits to […] teachers, firefighters, police officers, federal employees covered by the civil service retirement system and people whose work was covered by a foreign social security system.
BACKGROUND
After introducing the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act in 2021, Spanberger worked for nearly four years to build support among colleagues on both sides of the aisle — gathering more than 325 bipartisan cosponsors to support her effort to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). For more than 40 years, the WEP and GPO reduced or erased earned retirement benefits for police officers, firefighters, federal employees, letter carriers, and other public servants across Virginia.
Spanberger never stopped pushing to get this legislation across the finish line. In September 2024, Spanberger and U.S. Representative Garret Graves (R-LA-06) forced a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the legislation. An overwhelming bipartisan majority of the U.S. House then voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act. Following U.S. House passage, Spanberger stood in the pouring rain alongside firefighters, police officers, and federal employees during a rally at the U.S. Capitol to call for a vote in the U.S. Senate. 10 days later, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate voted to pass the legislation. President Biden then signed the Spanberger-led legislation into law on January 5, 2025.
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