{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-backed-bill-to-protect-mainers-social-security-benefits-passes-house", "Golden-backed bill to protect Mainers\u2019 Social Security benefits passes House", "2024-11-12", "2024", "2024-11", "Democrat", "House", "ME", "Jared F. Golden", "G000592", "golden.house.gov", "golden", "https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today voted to pass H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act. The bill would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), which reduce Social Security benefits for millions of public employees such as teachers and first responders.\n\nGolden helped force today\u2019s vote by signing a bipartisan discharge petition in September \u2014 a procedure that allows a majority of lawmakers to secure a floor vote on legislation that has stalled in committee. While there have been hundreds of discharge petitions throughout U.S. history, few have ever successfully been used to pass legislation out of the House.\n\n\u201cWhen someone spends their life serving the public, they should keep every penny they earned for retirement,\u201d Golden said. \u201cThese Social Security cuts were wrong from the start and I\u2019m glad we finally forced the House to vote on it.\u201d\n\nAfter passing the House today 327-75, the Social Security Fairness Act now heads to the Senate, where it will require 60 votes to pass. The Senate\u2019s version of the bill currently has 62 cosponsors.\n\nThe WEP and GPO were enacted in 1983 to reduce Social Security pensions for public employees who already receive other retirement benefits. The WEP reduces payments by up to half for those receiving both Social Security and outside pensions that were excluded from payroll taxes. The GPO reduces payments by up to two-thirds for beneficiaries that receive both a government pension and spousal or survivor benefits from Social Security.\n\nAs of 2023, more than 21,000 Mainers were affected by the WEP.\n\nGolden has worked to repeal the WEP and GPO since arriving in Congress, cosponsoring legislation to do so during each of his terms. He was one of 330 cosponsors of the Social Security Fairness Act this session.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:07:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-backed-bill-to-protect-mainers-social-security-benefits-passes-house"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8406310807913542, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}