June 15, 2007
Chairman Charles B. Rangel
Committee on Ways and Means
U.S. House of Representatives
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Rangel:
The Association of American Educators, a non-union
professional educators’ association, strongly urges you to repeal
the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination
Provision (WEP) by passing H.R. 82, The Social Security Fairness Act of
2007. The GPO and WEP unfairly prevent thousands of public school
teachers from receiving the Social Security benefits they duly deserve
for their years of service to public education.
Under current federal law, public employees,
including teachers, are not eligible to receive the same Social
Security benefits as other workers. The WEP affects public employees
who did not have Social Security taxes withheld from their salary,
therefore causing Social Security benefits to be reduced by their
pension from that work. The GPO affects individuals who receive a
government pension, but did not pay Social Security taxes, by reducing
by two-thirds their Social Security spousal benefits. Thousands of
teachers enter retirement and receive a fraction of the money they have
contributed to Social Security.
The Social Security Fairness Act, has wide
bi-partisan support in the House with currently 314 co-sponsors. Please
join your colleagues in supporting this bill in an effort to end the
inequitable effects of the GPO and WEP.
Please understand the gravity of this situation
for public school teachers. I urge you to allow H.R. 82 to come to the
House floor for a vote.
Sincerely,
Gary Beckner
Executive Director
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