Dear Mr. Fehr,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Social Security Fairness Act. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you may be aware, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) was enacted in 1983 as part of a large reform package designed to shore up the financing of the Social Security system. The windfall elimination provision reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also receive pension benefits from other employment not covered by Social Security, such as the Federal Civil Retirement System. Public employees often have salaries that are lower than those in the private sector, and the windfall reduction makes it more difficult to recruit employees into these positions. The WEP threatens the financial viability of public-employee retirees and their spouses.

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 2010) on December 16, 2011. If enacted, this legislation would amend title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the Government pension offset and the windfall elimination provisions. You may be pleased to know that I have co-sponsored this legislation and have a strong history of supporting this legislation in the past. The Social Security Fairness Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance where it is currently awaiting further review.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. You may also be interested in signing up for periodic updates for Washington State residents. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html  

Editor's Note:  Please see our article from 2009. The letters are pretty much the same. Just updated a bit