By Hilderbran H.C.R. No. 247 77R12652 ELG-D HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, Social security is the foundation for retirement 1-2 income for millions of American workers and their families; 1-3 two-thirds of older Americans rely on social security for 50 1-4 percent or more of their total income, and 30 percent rely on it 1-5 for 90 percent or more; and 1-6 WHEREAS, As many as 80 percent of Texas' teachers are not 1-7 covered by social security, and thus rely on government pensions to 1-8 provide for their retirement; however, when they retire, many of 1-9 these teachers are subject to a particularly onerous social 1-10 security provision called the Government Pension Offset (GPO), 1-11 which harshly and unfairly penalizes recipients of public pensions; 1-12 and 1-13 WHEREAS, The GPO has the effect of reducing or, in many 1-14 cases, eliminating the social security benefit for approximately 1-15 300,000 spouses, widows, or widowers who also receive a pension 1-16 based on their own work for federal, state, or local government 1-17 entities not covered by social security; and 1-18 WHEREAS, This punitive and inequitable provision targets 1-19 thousands of teachers because it applies only to recipients of 1-20 public pensions; recipients of private-sector pension benefits are 1-21 not subject to the same penalty; and 1-22 WHEREAS, The GPO most frequently and drastically affects 1-23 low-income widows, many of whom are retired teachers, causing many 1-24 to live near, or even below, the poverty level; no retired teachers 2-1 should have to live out their retirement years in poverty; and 2-2 WHEREAS, Although the GPO was intended to curtail the payment 2-3 of windfall benefits to highly paid government employees, it has 2-4 had and continues to have devastating and unintended consequences 2-5 for retired teachers; the GPO as applied to this group is 2-6 unreasonable, arbitrary, and unjust; now, therefore, be it 2-7 RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-8 hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to 2-9 repeal the Government Pension Offset provision of the Social 2-10 Security Act; and, be it further 2-11 RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 2-12 copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 2-13 the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of 2-14 the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of 2-15 the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 2-16 resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 2-17 memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.