Holcombe Rucker Park National Commemorative Site Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I expect that sometime this evening, the Senate will move to the consideration of the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal two Social Security provisions: the windfall elimination provision, pronounced ``WEP,'' and the government pension offset, GPO.
I agree with my colleagues that the WEP and GPO should be improved to ensure that teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others receive fair treatment under Social Security; however, I am disappointed that the Finance Committee did not have the opportunity to examine ways to address the WEP and GPO that would be fair to all Social Security beneficiaries and not hurt Social Security's long-term solvency.
In its current form, the Social Security Fairness Act would cost nearly $200 billion over the next 10 years and exhaust the balance of the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund roughly 6 months earlier for all Social Security beneficiaries. The share of OASI benefits that could be paid when the trust fund is exhausted would be smaller under this bill than under current law, meaning all Social Security beneficiaries will see their Social Security benefits reduced earlier, and their benefits then will be even smaller than they would have been.
I filed an amendment that would delay the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act until changes are made that would offset the bill's negative impact on Social Security's actuarial balance as determined by the Social Security Board of Trustees. The amendment does not specify what the changes should be or how the changes should be determined.
While I continue to have concerns with the approach taken in the Social Security Fairness Act, at the very least, this amendment needs to be adopted so that we do not have a negative impact on Social Security's solvency and impact the Social Security benefits of all Social Security recipients.
I urge my colleagues to support this amendment when it comes up. That will be the Crapo amendment No. 3331.
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