{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-backed-bill-to-protect-social-security-benefits-for-public-workers-approved-by-senate", "Reed-backed Bill to Protect Social Security Benefits for Public Workers Approved by Senate", "2024-12-21", "2024", "2024-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "RI", "Jack Reed", "R000122", "www.reed.senate.gov", "jackreed", "https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 The U.S. Senate voted 76-20 to pass the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.82/S.597) to correct a long-standing penalty that unfairly impacts millions of public servants and surviving spouses across the nation.\n\nThe bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act was introduced in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and in the U.S. House by Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-7) and Garret Graves (R-LA-6). Senator Reed is an original cosponsor of the Senate bill, which had 62 cosponsors.\n\nThe bipartisan legislation, which previously passed the U.S. House of Representatives in November with a vote of 327-75-1, repeals the government pension offset (GPO) and windfall elimination provision (WEP) that reduce Social Security benefits for some firefighters, police officers, public school teachers, postal workers, and other public workers and their spouses.\n\n\u201cThousands of hardworking Rhode Islanders who have dedicated their lives to serving our communities deserve the reassurance that they won\u2019t be short-changed on their Social Security benefits. I\u2019ve worked with my colleague Sherrod Brown for years to pass this legislation in order to ensure that millions of teachers, postal workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other dedicated civil servants get the benefits they have earned,\u201d said Senator Reed. \u201cI\u2019m glad we were able to finally deliver this correction for millions of hardworking Americans and I\u2019m committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security to ensure all Americans are able to retire with the dignity and financial security they have earned.\u201d\n\nAccording to the Congressional Research Service, the WEP and GPO provisions have limited Social Security payouts for approximately 2.8 million Americans.\n\nNow that the legislation has been approved by the Senate, it will be sent to the President\u2019s desk to be signed into law.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-backed-bill-to-protect-social-security-benefits-for-public-workers-approved-by-senate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9616189636290073, "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"}