Biden signs Social Security Fairness Act, GPO-WEP ‘gone for good’

On Sunday, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act, which eliminated the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) rules, which had for 40 years unfairly harmed public service retirees.

"AFSCME members in public safety fought hard for this for decades," said Anthony Zona, chair of AFSCME Council 4's Public Safety Chapter. "With this new law, we'll finally get the Social Security benefits that we paid for and that we deserve."

In a statement, AFSCME President Lee Saunders, who was at the signing, said, “Finally, GPO-WEP is gone for good. These outdated rules denied over two million retired public service workers their hard-earned Social Security benefits. With President Biden’s signing of the Social Security Fairness Act, GPO-WEP becomes a thing of the past.”

Thanks to the tireless efforts of AFSCME members, labor partners and Congressional allies including Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Garret Graves, thousands of AFSCME members can now retire with peace of mind. At the same time, passionate jobseekers will be inspired to pursue public service careers knowing their futures will be secure.

In his statement, President Saunders pointed to the fierce activism of AFSCME members for delivering this historic victory.

“AFSCME members, both on the job and already retired, along with fellow public service workers nationwide, organized petitions, letter-writing campaigns, called representatives in Congress and even traveled to DC to demand answers face-to-face,” said Saunders.

In the past year alone, AFSCME members across the country made more than 8,000 phone calls and wrote more than 28,000 letters to their elected leaders to bring an end to these unfair cuts.

Our nonstop activism has brought a huge victory for public service workers.