What to recognize about the congressional push to expand Social safety benefits

WASHINGTON — The House has passed legislation that would provide packed Social safety benefits to millions of people, pushing it one step closer to becoming law.

The Social safety invoice on Tuesday won bipartisan back in the House, 327-75, in what is now the lame-duck period for Congress. The invoice now heads to the Senate, where passage is not assured despite considerable back.

Here’s what to recognize about the legislation and what could happen next.

Decades in the making, the invoice would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government superannuation Offset — that currently limit Social safety payouts for roughly 2.8 million people, according to reports from the Congressional Research Service.

The policies broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social safety recipients: people who also receive a superannuation from a job that is not covered by Social safety and surviving spouses of Social safety recipients who receive a government superannuation of their own.

People who worked in state, local and federal government jobs have been heavily affected by the policies, as have teachers, firefighters and police officers, according to lawmakers and advocates.

Both provisions would be repealed by the invoice, thereby increasing Social safety payments for many.

The budgetary result of the legislation is considerable, adding an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional apportionment Office.

That means more budgetary strain on the Social safety depend funds, which were already estimated to be unable to pay out packed benefits beginning in 2035. Some conservatives in the House attempted to block the legislation due to its expense.

Supporters of the invoice in the House acknowledged the budgetary impact but said it was a matter of fairness.

“For more than 40 years, the Social safety depend funds have been artificially propped up by stolen benefits that millions of Americans paid for and that their families deserve,” said Reps. Garret Graves, R-La. and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., the navigator sponsors of the invoice in the House.

“The period to put an complete to this theft is now,” they said.

The Social safety invoice has 63 sponsors in the Senate — a significant tally because 60 votes are needed to pass most legislation in the chamber.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, the navigator sponsors, have urged colleagues to receive up the invoice as soon as feasible.

But the Senate has a jam-packed schedule in the remaining weeks of the year, with government capital, disaster relief and an annual must-pass defense invoice likely to eat up considerable floor period.

If passed by the Senate, the invoice would leave to President Joe Biden. If the invoice is signed into law, the changes would be effective for benefits payable after December 2023.

But if the invoice doesn’t pass the Senate by Jan. 3, when a recent session of Congress begins, it would expire and supporters would have to commence over.