Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I am actually joined here today with my Massachusetts staff, who is joining with my Washington staff, and they are in the Gallery today. The subject I am about to talk to is very near and dear to their hearts. It is near the top of the list of all the issues they think go to fundamental unfairness in our society, because right now, an entire generation of teachers and firefighters and postal workers and police officers and public servants of all stripes are being denied the Social Security benefits which they earned.

In 1983, the so-called windfall elimination provision slashed retirement benefits in the name of austerity. I was a Member of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress in 1983. I voted against the windfall elimination provision. I voted against Republicans. I voted against many Democrats who all were willing to slash the benefits of those hard-working teachers, firefighters, police officers, across the board--and have lost it for four decades--because I knew that I was voting for public servants and voting for their families.

I have been fighting for repeal of the windfall elimination provision as well as the government pension offset ever since, and I stand here today because we have an opportunity to finally see this repeal through to conclusion.

Senator Brown and Senator Collins' Social Security Fairness Act would repeal the windfall elimination provision and the government offset provision. I am proud to cosponsor that bill, alongside 60 of my colleagues from both parties, and 60 is the number you need to pass a bill on the floor of the U.S. Senate. We can restore Social Security benefits for millions of workers now, and we should do it now.

Three million--unbelievable--three million public servants and their families around the country, including 130,000 in Massachusetts and their families, are counting on us to get them their earned benefits. They have already done the work, but a 1983 law denies them that check in the mail.

No one else in the country was targeted in that bill--just those public servants, those people who work for each and every one of us every single day.

A retired public school teacher in Chicopee, MA, wrote to me and explained that she had dutifully paid into Social Security for decades, earning her right to Social Security and a secure retirement. But late in her career, she answered the call to public service and dedicated her time to educating students in Massachusetts. That is the kind of action we should value and we should reward. Instead, she was blindsided 10 years later to learn that because of her public service and the modest public pension she accrued, her Social Security benefits would be cut by $580 a month, which otherwise would be there on her kitchen table for herself, for her family. Now, instead of a secure and dignified retirement, she has to worry about affording rent and medication and groceries.

If, instead of teaching, she had earned a private pension, she had worked in any other sector of the American economy or she was wealthy enough to live off of her investments, her Social Security would be safe. The only category is these people who were the public servants. They are the ones who got targeted in 1983.

Another constituent from Tyngsboro, MA, wrote me to say that after her father passed away, her mother, a retired school employee, lost over $1,000 a month in Social Security. Now, in addition to mourning her husband, she also struggles to pay bills and meet her basic needs.

There are 3 million more stories of injustice and indignity just like this.

We know the Federal Government can be in the business of allowing windfalls. Major corporations hiking up prices on the American people while paying effectively no Federal taxes--that is a windfall. Private equity cronies making millions off the backs of workers while laying them off and gutting their pensions--that is a windfall. But make no mistake, allowing a third grade teacher, a town firefighter, and a mailman to receive their hard-earned retirement benefits is not a windfall.

Repealing these draconian policies is a matter of justice and dignity for millions of public servants. These workers served their communities and delivered for us every single day. In every city and town across the country--Massachusetts, the President's home State of Pennsylvania--State after State, the story is the same, and now it is time for us to deliver for them.

After four decades of fighting and organizing alongside unions and workers and retirees, Congress must repeal these policies once and for all. The Senate may be short on time, but public servants have waited long enough.

In the time remaining this year, we must deliver for those 3 million families in our country. They earned this benefit. We have to finally meet the obligation which has been accrued by the American people to those 3 million workers.

So let's vote to pass the Social Security Fairness Act. Bring home this win for public servants, their families, and our communities.

No matter where you live in America, when you see that firefighter on the fire engine, when you see that police officer rushing to protect a family, when you call the teacher to ask ``How is my child doing?''-- every time you make one of those calls, every time you see one of those people, just know that they are denied--they are denied the benefit which they have earned. They are denied it by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1983.

Why them? Why were they singled out? Why wasn't it billionaires? Why wasn't it private equity? Well, the votes were there, and, unfortunately, too many Democrats voted for it as well.

It is time for us to rectify that historic injustice. It is time for us to provide fundamental fairness for each and every one of those families. This is the time; this is the place; we are the people who must get this done. It goes right to the heart of who we are as a people. If you believe in government, then you must believe in everything that teachers and firefighters and police and everyone else who is in our cities and towns provide for us every single day. And we must have that vote on the Senate floor. We must pass this legislation. We must finally give back to these families what they have earned by their service to us.

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