HBA-BSM H.R. 1077 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.R. 1077 By: Berman Pensions & Investments 5/18/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Social security is the foundation for retirement income for millions of American workers and their families. Approximately two-thirds of older Americans rely on social security for 50 percent or more of their total income, and 30 percent rely on it for 90 percent or more. The Government Pension Offset (GPO), a social security provision enacted in 1977, may unfairly penalize recipients of public pensions. The GPO has the effect of reducing or in many cases eliminating the social security benefit for spouses, widows, or widowers who also receive a pension based on their own work for federal, state, or local government entities not covered by social security. For example, as many as 266,000 low-income and middle-income women, who have worked in such positions as clerical employees, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and librarians are affected by the GPO, as the offset most drastically affects low-income widows, causing many to live near or even below the poverty level. This provision targets hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public servants because it applies only to recipients of public pensions. Recipients of private-sector pension benefits are not subject to the same penalty. Although the pension offset provision was intended to curtail the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid government employees, there is concern that it has had and continues to have potentially devastating and unintended consequences for low-income public service employees. The GPO may cause tens of thousands of retired government employees to live out their retirement years in poverty. House Resolution 1077 urges the Congress of the United States to repeal the Government Pension Offset provision of the Social Security Act. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this resolution does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Resolution 1077 urges the Congress of the United States to repeal the Government Pension Offset provision of the Social Security Act.