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79R1547 EAM-D
By: Noriega H.C.R. No. 63
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Social security is the foundation for retirement
income for millions of American workers and their families;
two-thirds of those older or disabled Americans who receive program
benefits rely on social security for 50 percent or more of their
total income, one-third rely on it for 90 percent or more, and for
20 percent it is their only source of income; and
WHEREAS, The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall
Elimination Provision (WEP), social security provisions enacted in
1977 and 1983, respectively, severely and unfairly penalize
recipients of public pensions; and
WHEREAS, The GPO effectively eliminates or reduces 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; an estimated 9
out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire
spousal benefit, even though their deceased spouses paid social
security taxes for many years; and
WHEREAS, The WEP reduces the social security benefit for
public employees who held positions not covered by social security
but who at some time in their careers were also employed in jobs
where they paid social security taxes for the period required to
qualify for retirement benefits; in some cases, those years in
public sector jobs amount to more than half of the worker's career;
the WEP can deprive a retiree of more than $300 a month in social
security benefits duly earned by that individual; and
WHEREAS, The GPO and WEP currently affect more than 900,000
government employees and retirees residing in virtually every
state, but their effect is more acute in Texas and 14 other states
where most public employees participate in state or municipal
retirement systems that do not include social security; the
harshest impact falls on low-income women, causing many to live
near, or even below, the poverty level; the cumulative loss of
benefits as a result of these penalties over the next ten years has
been projected by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $50
billion; and
WHEREAS, These punitive and discriminatory provisions target
hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters,
and other public servants because they apply only to recipients of
public pensions; recipients of private-sector pension benefits are
not subject to the same penalty; and
WHEREAS, Although these provisions were intended to curtail
the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid government
employees, in practice they have had and continue to have
devastating consequences for low-income employees who worked for
many years as public servants; the GPO and WEP as applied to this
group is unreasonable and unjust and will cause tens of thousands of
retired government employees to live out their retirement years in
poverty or be forced to return to work to make up for the effects of
these provisions; and
WHEREAS, Public school employees are especially affected by
these provisions; although the vast majority of Texas school
employees participate in the state's teacher retirement system and
therefore are not required to and do not participate in the social
security system, many Texas teachers and other public school
employees nonetheless have earned social security benefits on their
own behalf through other employment, the WEP notwithstanding, or
would be entitled to spousal social security benefits based on
their spouses' lifetime earnings were it not for the GPO penalty;
and
WHEREAS, Because of their adverse effect on the pensions of
teachers, these provisions cause veteran teachers to retire
prematurely and discourage qualified individuals from entering the
teaching profession at precisely the time that Texas and the nation
face a severe shortage of highly qualified educators; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
repeal the Government Pension Offset provision and the Windfall
Elimination Provision of the Social Security Act; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.