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Washington, D.C.—The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today welcomed attention of a key House subcommittee on a Social Security offset known as the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that imposes serious financial hardship on many federal retirees.

At the same time, she pressed for action on a second provision—the Government Pension Offset (GPO)—that likewise has a serious negative impact on many government retirees.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley described as “havoc” the results on the retirement plans of many federal employees of both the WEP and the GPO. “These two Social Security offsets may affect the benefits of as many as seven million federal, state and local government employees,” the union leader said in testimony submitted to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.

The WEP unfairly reduces the retirement income of many federal retirees by reducing their own earned Social Security benefit by as much as 50 percent. The GPO, which Kelley described as having “a particularly devastating impact on female federal employees,” reduces a spousal Social Security benefit by two-thirds of the amount of a government pension.

The subcommittee is considering H.R. 4391, the Public Servant Retirement Protection Act, which would apply a new benefit calculation that would take the place of the WEP. This legislative proposal, however, does not address the GPO.

NTEU has long advocated legislation that would either repeal or revise both the WEP and the GPO. In addition to H.R. 4391, Kelley urged the subcommittee to review other pending bills dealing with these serious issues, and in particular, H.R. 594, which would repeal both the WEP and GPO and which has attracted some 300 cosponsors. Pending Senate legislation, S. 349, which also would repeal both provisions, has 30 co-sponsors.

Other bills that would make significant beneficial changes in the WEP and GPO include H.R. 887, which has 126 House co-sponsors, and S. 363, which is cosponsored by 28 senators.

President Kelley thanked subcommittee chairman E. Clay Shaw (R-FL) for his interest in addressing the WEP, particularly in a period of “tight fiscal restraint,” and expressed NTEU’s view that it is “equally important that Congress commit the necessary resources” to address the severe financial problems for federal retirees impacted by the GPO.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.