Blumenthal, Murphy, & Colleagues Demand Funding to Fully Implement Social Security Fairness Act
[HARTFORD, CT] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined their colleagues, led by U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) 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.
“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,” wrote the lawmakers.
“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,” continued the lawmakers.
The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jack Reed (D-RI), Angus King (I-ME), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
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.
On February 25th, the Social Security Administration announced it is immediately beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the WEP and GPO. Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security. Many of these people will also receive higher monthly benefits, which will first be reflected in the benefit payment they receive in April. However, many complex cases must be processed manually on an individual basis, which may take longer. Additional funding will allow the Social Security Administration to ensure full implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act for all beneficiaries, as well as to continue to invest in customer service improvements.
In Connecticut, repealing the WEP will affect over 22,000 Social Security beneficiaries and repealing the GPO will affect nearly 10,000 Social Security beneficiaries, according to reports from the Congressional Research Service.
Blumenthal and Congressman John Larson (CT-01) have previously introduced the Social Security 2100 Act, which in addition to repealing the WEP and GPO, also provides an across-the-board benefit increase, improves the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) to reflect seniors’ true costs, and provides the Social Security Administration with resources to improve customer service. The bill would enhance Social Security benefits for the first time in more than 50 years.
Full text of the letter is available here and below.
The Honorable Susan Collins
Chair
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Patty Murray
Vice Chair
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chair Collins and Vice Chair Murray:
As you continue your work to finalize the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, we urge you to provide no less than $15.402 billion in funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA), sufficient funding to allow for timely implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act while also improving overall SSA customer service.
Last year, with large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, Congress passed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. This law repealed both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), draconian laws that robbed an entire generation of teachers, firefighters, postal workers, and public servants of all stripes the Social Security benefits they earned.
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 and require 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 it made reducing the disability appeals backlog and improving customer service to the public.
We appreciate the Committee’s bipartisan work to provide SSA with increased funding in previous years and urge you to continue these bipartisan successes by supporting the SSA to implement the Social Security Fairness Act in addition to sufficient resources to rebuild and reinforce its workforce, modernize its IT infrastructure, timely process disability claims and improve customer service to the millions who rely on Social Security.
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.
Sincerely,
-30-