Senate begins final push to expand Social safety benefits for millions of people

WASHINGTON — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide packed Social safety benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.

Senate Majority chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would commence the procedure for a final vote on the statement, known as the Social safety Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social safety payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.

Schumer said the statement would “ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social safety benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in community service.”

The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the statement introduced last year gained 62 cosponsors. But the statement still needs back from at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then head to President Biden.

At least one GOP senator who signed onto similar legislation last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he was still “weighing” whether to vote for the statement next week.

“Nothing ever gets paid for, so if it’s further indebtedness, I don’t recognize,” he said.

Decades in the making, the statement would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government retirement fund Offset — that broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social safety recipients: people who also receive a retirement fund from a job that is not covered by Social safety and surviving spouses of Social safety recipients who receive a government retirement fund of their own.

The statement would add more strain on the Social safety depend funds, which were already estimated to be unable to pay out packed benefits beginning in 2035. It would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional budgetary schedule Office.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal budgetary schedule also estimates that if passed, the policy would hasten the Social safety program’s insolvency date by about half a year as well as reduce lifetime Social safety benefits by an additional $25,000 for a typical dual-turnover couple retiring in 2033.

Sen. John Thune, the no. 2 Republican in leadership, acknowledged that the policy has powerful bipartisan back, but said some Republicans also desire to view it “fixed in the context of a broader Social safety reform attempt.”

Conservatives have opposed the statement, decrying its expense.

“Even for something that people consider to be a excellent factor, it shows a lack of concern for the upcoming of the country, so I ponder it would be a large mistake,” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky.

Still, other Republicans have pushed Schumer to bring it up for a vote.

Sen. statement Cassidy, R-La., said last month that the current federal limitations “penalize families across the country who worked a community service job for part of their career with a divide retirement fund. We’re talking about police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other community employees who are punished for serving their communities.”

He predicted the statement would pass.

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