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Washington, D.C.—Two provisions of existing law unfairly penalize those who dedicate their careers to public service, and need to be reformed or repealed as soon as possible, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees told a congressional subcommittee today.

In testimony submitted to the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) repeated the union’s long-standing concerns about the impact on federal workers of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).

The GPO unfairly penalizes recipients of government pensions who are also eligible for Social Security payments on a spouse’s work record. The GPO reduces the spousal Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the amount of the government pension—in many cases, eliminating entirely the Social Security benefit a federal retiree otherwise would receive.

It is particularly damaging to female federal retirees who often are eligible for smaller pensions based, in part, on career interruptions while raising their families, or because they worked in lower-paid positions for the bulk of their federal careers.

While the WEP similarly unfairly penalizes individuals for spending their careers in public service, it operates in a somewhat different manner. It can reduce the retirement income of many federal retirees by cutting their own, earned Social Security benefit by as much as 50 percent.

The WEP requires that a sharply lower Social Security benefit formula be used when a retiring federal employee is eligible for both Social Security and a pension from work not covered by Social Security, such as under the federal Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

The NTEU leader said the use of this lower formula can significantly reduce the retirement financial security of many federal employees “simply because the individual chose to spend his or her career in public service.”

President Kelley said in light of the fact that federal employees “are being financially devastated” by these provisions of law, several bipartisan bills are pending in both the House and Senate that would address these continuing issues.

She called for quick passage of H.R. 887 and S. 363, introduced by Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), respectively, and H.R. 594 and S. 349, introduced by Rep. Howard McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), respectively, that would repeal or modify the GPO and WEP in ways that are both fair and appropriate. All four bills have attracted substantial numbers of co-sponsors.

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