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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today called on Congress to approve bipartisan legislation introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) that would significantly improve the retirement financial security of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has long urged repeal of the Government Pension Offset (GPO), a law under which Social Security spousal benefits are reduced or eliminated if the spouse is also eligible for a pension based on local, state or federal service that was not covered by Social Security.

“The Mikulski bill would be an important step in the right direction in dealing with this unfair and harsh provision of law,” President Kelley said, “and I urge Congress to approve it.”

Sen. Mikulski first introduced the Government Pension Offset Act in 1997, and noted that support for it “grows in each Congress.” Its co-sponsors include Democratic senators Paul Sarbanes (MD), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Tom Daschle (SD) and Byron Dorgan (ND), along with Republican senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine.

Sen. Mikulski said that nearly 350,000 people currently are affected by the law—a number that grows by nearly 20,000 retirees each year. GPO penalizes many recipients of government pensions who are also eligible for Social Security benefits based on a spouse’s work record. It reduces the spousal Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the amount of the government pension.

The impact hits women particularly hard, since many of them are often eligible for only small federal pensions to begin with because they either interrupted their careers while raising families or worked in lower paid positions for much of their careers. Social Security data show that among those affected are elderly widows who often lose their entire Social Security benefit because of the GPO.

The Mikulski legislation would guarantee a minimum of $1,200 combined monthly benefit of pension and Social Security spousal benefits before a two-thirds offset could be applied.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents more than 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.