By Michael Martz

The U.S. House of Representatives reversed an election night maneuver by Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, to kill legislation that Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, had championed to give retired public employees their full share of Social Security benefits from jobs they had worked outside of their government careers.

The House then passed the Social Security Fairness Act on Tuesday night by a bipartisan, 327-75 vote, well beyond the two-thirds vote of those present required to send the legislation to the U.S. Senate, where 62 senators already have signed on as co-sponsors. The bill had 330 cosponsors from both parties in the 435-member House.

“That’s the best news I’ve had in a long, long time,” said David L. Brown Jr., a retired battalion chief at the Danville Fire Department.

Brown, 71, has worked with Spanberger and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., to help them repeal two provisions of federal law enacted 41 years ago to prevent public employees from “double dipping” by collecting full benefits under Social Security for work covered by the program, as well pensions from their public service jobs.

A Danville native, he said he began working at 16 years old at McDonald’s before embarking on a firefighting career of more than 31 years. But he also worked part-time jobs along the way to make ends meet. He served in the emergency department at Danville Regional Medical Center, worked at J.C. Penney Co. and Sears, bagged groceries at Food Lion, and assisted in the office of an orthopedic surgeon.

Brown is collecting a pension from his firefighting career after retiring in 2006, but he’s receiving $114.30 a month — after deducting income taxes and Medicare — from Social Security, which he said is far less than the amount he had expected from the payments he made into the system on earnings from those other jobs. The reason is the “Windfall Elimination Provision,” which sharply reduces the earnings for calculating his Social Security benefit because of his public employee pension.

“The only thing we want out of this is to be treated fairly like every other American citizen,” he said.

The legislation, if adopted by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden, would repeal the “Windfall Elimination Provision” and the “Government Pension Offset.” The latter affects those who are eligible for benefits from both their deceased spouse’s Social Security-covered earnings and their own government pension plans. Spanberger estimates that the two provisions reduce the Social Security benefits of 55,000 Virginians.

Critics say the legislation would hasten the financial insolvency of the Social Security System and give an unfair benefit to people who already are collecting pensions as government employees. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing the two provisions would add $195 billion in obligations to Social Security over the next 10 years.

“Social Security is just nine years away from insolvency, and our seniors need a fix fast,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Tuesday. “Congress should not vote to make the problem worse.”

Advocates of the legislation said the cost represents benefits that current law withholds from people who have earned them.

“For more than 40 years, the Social Security trust funds have been artificially propped up by stolen benefits that millions of Americans paid for and that their families deserve,” Spanberger and Graves said in a joint statement after the vote. “The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address — but an issue that is wholly separate from allowing Virginians, Louisianans, and Americans across our country who did their part and contributed their earnings to retire with dignity.”

“The time to put an end to this theft is now,” they said.

The vote nearly didn’t happen. On election night, Good introduced a surprise motion to table the legislation “with unanimous consent” during a procedural session of the House with few members present. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who was presiding over the pro forma session, dismissed an objection by the House parliamentarian and allowed the motion to be adopted, even though the leaders of both parties said they knew nothing about it. Both Good and Harris are members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which Good previously chaired.

The Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia, which supports the legislation, sent a letter to Good the next day that accused him of “underhanded and reprehensible conduct” by violating House rules to table the legislation.

“You demonstrated great disrespect for the House, your colleagues, and the millions of retired public employees who have lost a benefit they earned through their work because of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset,” wrote Ray Clemons, president of the organization’s Virginia State Lodge.

Good, in a response dated two days later, cited both his concerns about the legislation’s effect on the solvency of the Social Security system, but also the way Spanberger and Graves had advanced the bill without going through the House Ways and Means Committee for full debate and amendment. They collected 218 signatures necessary to discharge the legislation from the committee and bring it directly to the House floor.

He said repealing the provisions “would hasten Social Security insolvency, which would harm all beneficiaries, including police officers and other public servants.”

Good acknowledged the “inequality created” by the Windfall Elimination Provision, but said he supported “an alternative bill that offers a solution that is more balanced and fair to all of the constituents I represent.”

The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a conservative Virginia think tank, applauded the move to kill the legislation and took a political shot at Spanberger, who is running for governor next year.

“Kudos to members willing to do what is right, over what is politically opportunistic!” Derrick Max, the institute’s president and CEO said in its weekly newsletter. “Rep. Spanberger is willing to see Social Security go broke earlier to benefit a relatively small number of vocal voters.”

Harris defused the standoff on Tuesday by asking the unanimous consent of the House to “vacate the order” to table the bill. It passed without objection.

After a 40-minute debate, 191 Democrats and 136 Republicans voted to pass the bill, including six of Virginia’s 11 congressional representatives — five Democrats and one Republican, Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd. Two others who had cosponsored the bill did not vote: Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11th, who last week announced he is undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer, and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, who released a statement praising its passage.

Three members of the state delegation voted no: Good; Rep. Ben Cline, R-6th; and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th.

“In today’s Social Security system, many public servants unfairly have their Social Security benefits reduced despite paying into the system throughout their careers,” Kiggans said in a statement. “That is wrong. Our police officers, firefighters, and teachers deserve to receive the support they’ve earned!”