Washington (February 26, 2025) - Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) led twenty-six of their colleagues in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) urging them to provide no less than $15.402 billion for the Social Security Administration in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, allowing for full and timely implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act.
In the letter the lawmakers write, “Due to persistent underfunding, staff shortages, and a hiring freeze in place since November 2024, the SSA acknowledged that implementing this new law will be a challenge requiring significant upfront cost to transmit retroactive payments to affected beneficiaries and update its systems to automatically recalculate benefit amounts going forward. As a result, some public servants impacted by WEP and GPO may not see a change in their Social Security benefits for at least 12 months. Without new additional funding, SSA will be required to divert resources from other customer service priorities, which could lead to longer wait times and would undo the agency’s progress in reducing the disability appeals backlog and improving customer service to the public.”
The lawmakers continue, “We appreciate your support of the Social Security Administration and respectfully urge you to include a substantial funding boost for SSA in the final FY2025 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill.”
The letter was signed by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
For decades, the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset (WEP/GPO) reduced Social Security benefits for public servants and their surviving family members who receive a public pension. This translated to public servants being restricted by law from receiving the full benefits for which they should have been entitled. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden in January 2025, repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which had reduced benefits for 3.2 million public servants. As a member of the House of Representatives in 1983, Markey was one of a handful of Democrats to vote against the Social Security Reform Act, which created WEP/GPO.
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