By Berman H.R. No. 1077 77R16557 ELG-D R E S O L U T I O N 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, The Government Pension Offset (GPO), a social 1-7 security provision enacted in 1977, harshly and unfairly penalizes 1-8 recipients of public pensions; and 1-9 WHEREAS, The GPO has the effect of reducing or, in many 1-10 cases, eliminating the social security benefit for spouses, widows, 1-11 or widowers who also receive a pension based on their own work for 1-12 federal, state, or local government entities not covered by social 1-13 security; and 1-14 WHEREAS, As many as 266,000 low-income and middle-income 1-15 women, for example those who have worked as clerical employees, 1-16 cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and librarians, are affected by the 1-17 GPO; the offset most drastically affects low-income widows, causing 1-18 many to live near, or even below, the poverty level; and 1-19 WHEREAS, This punitive and inequitable provision targets 1-20 hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, 1-21 and other public servants because it applies only to recipients of 1-22 public pensions; recipients of private-sector pension benefits are 1-23 not subject to the same penalty; and 1-24 WHEREAS, Although the pension offset provision was intended 2-1 to curtail the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid 2-2 government employees, it has had and continues to have devastating 2-3 and unintended consequences for low-income public service 2-4 employees; the GPO as applied to this group is unreasonable and 2-5 unjust and will cause tens of thousands of retired government 2-6 employees to live out their retirement years in poverty; now, 2-7 therefore, be it 2-8 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 77th Texas 2-9 Legislature hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United 2-10 States to repeal the Government Pension Offset provision of the 2-11 Social Security Act; and, be it further 2-12 RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the house of 2-13 representatives forward official copies of this resolution to the 2-14 president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of 2-15 representatives and the president of the senate of the United 2-16 States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to 2-17 the congress with the request that this resolution be officially 2-18 entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress 2-19 of the United States of America.