community sector workers are heartened after Senate Majority chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would bring a invoice that could boost their Social safety benefits to a vote.

The invoice to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government superannuation Offset (GPO) which reduce Social safety benefits for sure retirees who also receive superannuation profits was passed last month by the House. The invoice, or Social safety Fairness Act, has 62 co-sponsors, suggesting it has filibuster-proof back to also be approved by the Senate. Instead, it has languished there to the frustration of community sector workers, who rallied on Wednesday at the Capitol in the rain to demand Schumer bring the invoice to a vote. If the invoice doesn’t pass by yearend, it dies.

Together, WEP and GPO affect nearly 3 million Americans including police officers, firefighters, postal workers and community-school teachers.

Schumer briefly addressed the rally, telling them “I am here to inform you, we are going to call the vote.”

On Thursday morning, Schumer followed through, filing to close talk on the Act to push it forward. He also told Senators they would vote next week.

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How do WEP and GPO lower Social safety benefits?

• The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reduces Social safety for those who receive so-called “non-covered” superannuation profits from jobs, typically community sector roles, that didn’t contribute Social safety payroll taxes. The reduction can be significant – up to half the superannuation amount.
• The Government superannuation Offset (GPO) reduces survivor or spousal benefits if a person’s superannuation is non-covered. GPO affects fewer people, but it cuts the Social safety advantage by two-thirds of the superannuation amount. If two-thirds of your government superannuation is more than your Social safety advantage, your advantage could be reduced to zero.

Schumer says Democrats are in. What about Republicans?

Schumer guaranteed that Democratic senators would keep their word and vote yes on the invoice but told the throng “We require 15 Republicans — let’s get them — and we’re going to have the vote.”

Senator Angus King (I-ME) echoed that sentiment last week to USA Today. He said he heard the invoice doesn’t have enough votes to pass because Republican senators may have backed away.

The handful of Republican senators who responded last week to USA TODAY’s queries said they remained committed to the invoice.

optimistic but not taking any chances

Schumer’s comments provide community sector retirees aspiration, but they’re not taking the invoice’s passage for granted.

“I will be sending another request to all hundred senators to vote yes…when it comes to the floor vote,” said Susan Dixon, 68, a retired schoolteacher in San Clemente, California, and president of the California Retired Teachers Association. She traveled with a throng to attend the rally in Washington D.C.

“I also am working with the National WEP GPO job Force, and we are doing a constituent legislative alert,” she said after the rally.

Before the rally, a throng of voters traveled from Massachusetts and distributed information on the GPO to every Senator’s office.

“They are getting a lot of information about WEP, which affects firefighters, police officers and teachers,” said Nadia Milleron, who was among the voters from Massachusetts. “But they are not getting very much information about GPO that affects very low-profits community workers, mostly women. When their husband dies, they do not get any of his Social safety because they worked in the community sector. This is so, so unhappy and is putting people in desperate poverty.”

Coming soon:Social safety’s largest changes are coming in 2025

Is the Social safety Fairness Act fair?

The rules were intended to prevent Social safety from overpaying people who worked in non-covered superannuation jobs, policy experts said. People with profits outside the Social safety structure can look like low earners.

Since Social safety replaces a higher percentage of prior profits for low-paid workers than for higher-paid workers, those who received well government salaries for decades would receive the same advantage in Social safety calculations as longtime low-profits workers, proponents of the rules argued.

Many community sector retirees debate that in addition to their superannuation jobs, they worked private sector jobs. Social safety taxes were automatically subtracted from their private job paycheck, so they paid into the structure and are entitled to receive their packed Social safety benefits at superannuation.

“I am not receiving the amount I earned from paying into Social safety,” said Barbara Mahaffey, 70, who lives in Chillicothe, Ohio. “I am not double dipping.  This is a ordinary misconception.  Most community service (workers) needed to work two jobs to make ends meet over the history 50 years.  Many of us worked in community service to assist others…The WEP unfairly reduced my Social safety profits.”

Most policy analysts consent something can be done to bolster Social safety for these workers, but the Social safety Fairness Act isn’t the respond.

Without offsets, the bipartisan nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal budget said repealing WEP and GPO would expense $196 billion over the next decade, hasten Social safety’s insolvency by about six months and boost the automatic advantage cuts when they occur.

In November, the U.S. budget deficit swelled 17% to $366.8 billion from a year ago, taking the total for the first two months of the financial year more than 64% higher than the same period a year ago on an unadjusted basis, Treasury said.

Many research groups, including the Bipartisan Policy Center, which aims to represent ideas from both Republicans and Democrats, back replacing WEP with a “proportional formula” for Social safety, instead. This would allow retirees to receive Social safety benefits based on the fraction of profits covered by Social safety, they said.

invoice “proponents make it seem that they’re trying to assist struggling seniors, but the targeted beneficiaries are a broad throng of mostly highly paid government retirees,” said Gary Brewer, 67, a retired accountant from Sacramento, California, who isn’t affected by WEP or GPO. “The reasoning behind them is fair and undeniable…If this largess simply came out of thin air, it would be less objectionable, but it will arrive out of the rapidly depleting Social safety endowment.”

Medora Lee is a money, markets and financial planning reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for financial planning tips and business information every Monday through Friday morning.