The Stars Finally Aligned
Beyond expressing an extreme sense of relief and gratitude that the Social Security WEP and GPO laws have been repealed, members are left asking “How did this finally happen? What led to victory in 2024?”
There is no one simple answer to that question. The not-so-simple answer is that the passage of HR82 was the result of decades of hard work and grassroots advocacy, combined with a series of unique events and a dash of well-timed luck.
“The simplest way to explain how HR82 was passed into law is that the stars finally aligned after 41 years. While there is no one thing that caused the law to pass, without a unique series of events we would likely be having a very different conversation today,” explains Mass Retirees CEO Shawn Duhamel. “Had we not experienced all this firsthand, I don’t think anyone here at Mass Retirees would have believed it to be true. The story behind what led to victory in 2024 is quite remarkable.”
Decades of Relentless Retiree Advocacy
The foundation for the repeal of WEP/GPO was built on decades of relentless advocacy by Mass Retirees, our individual members, and countless others from across the country. For our Association, these grassroots efforts were formalized back in 1992 when Mass Retirees joined with other organizations in what became the Coalition to Assure Retirement Equity (CARE). Our first call to action for individual members to call and write to their federal officials began at that time.
Back then, the initial focus was on reforming or repealing the GPO. That mission was quickly expanded to include the WEP and by the early 2000s the two issues became synonymous.
With each passing year, the number of retirees across the country impacted by WEP/GPO grew significantly. What starts as less than 200,000 retirees impacted by WEP/ GPO in the early 90s grew to nearly 3 million in 2024.
Also growing year-by-year were the number of retirees, from Massachusetts to California, engaged in letter writing, phone calls, emails, and – eventually social media activism.
In November 2019, the Facebook group National WEP & GPO Repeal Movement was formed. The group, now called Guardians of Social Security, has gained more than 52,000 members in less than five years. Led by Illinois retiree Pam Alexandroff, the group was instrumental in uniting retirees spread across the country behind an organized grassroots effort during the 118th Congress.
“From the moment I announced my candidacy to Congress, I heard about WEP/GPO nearly every single day. I can think of no other issue where such persistent advocacy existed for so long. It is the persistence of public retirees that won the day,” said Congresswoman Katherine Clark in a call with Mass Retirees. Serving as Democratic Whip, Clark is the second most senior member of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives.
National Union Leadership
Support from the national public employee unions and retiree association unions to end WEP/GPO has always been at the forefront of legislative efforts. This dates back to the founding of CARE by the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (now known as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees) or NARFE in the early ‘90s.
NARFE initially put considerable time and resources into the issues of WEP/GPO. However, with new federal employees having been placed under Social Security by the 1983 Social Security Amendments, the number of impacted NARFE members declined each year, while the impact on our membership grew. By 2010, NARFE no longer prioritized WEP/GPO as a top issue.
While other national organizations and unions were on record supporting an end to WEP/GPO, the issues largely took a backseat to the issues directly impacting existing members.
The dynamic changed in 2019 with the election of Patrick Yoes as National President of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and in 2021 with the election of Edward Kelly as General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). A Boston firefighter, Kelly is not only a close friend and ally of Mass Retirees but is also personally familiar with the impact of WEP/GPO.
Yoes retired in 2020 from the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office, the sole law enforcement agency for St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, a suburb 18 miles west of New Orleans, LA. Like Massachusetts, nearly every public employee in Louisiana works outside of Social Security and was subjected to the WEP/GPO.
The dynamic of having the leaders of two of the most powerful public safety organizations in the country each personally impacted and aware of the unfairness of WEP/GPO on their collective members proved to be a game changing event. This was especially evident during the closing days of the 118th Congressional Session, when both organizations put considerable resources and spent significant political capital to help carry HR82 across the finish line.
Graves and Spanberger
If we had to identify just one reason why HR82 was passed into law, it would be the successful discharge petition filed by Congressman Garret Graves (R-LA) and Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). The bipartisan duo were the cosponsors of HR82.
Beyond simply filing the bill, each became heavily invested in seeing it through to the end – clearly making the issue of WEP/GPO repeal a personal priority.
With HR82 seemingly stalled in the Subcommittee on Social Security, which falls under the purview of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Graves and Spanberger embarked on the unusual step of filing a discharge petition to force the bill from committee and to the House floor for a vote.
House rules carefully spell out the discharge petition process, which requires a simple majority of 218 House members to succeed. When the petition was filed, some 330 House members had signed onto HR82 as cosponsors.
Knowing that some senior Congressional leaders and most of the Washington, DC think tanks and budget watching establishment opposed full repeal of WEP/GPO due to the cost (nearly $200 billion over 10-years) and the impact on the Social Security Trust Fund, there had not been a concerted effort to use the parliamentary procedure to force action on similar bills in the past. This might be due, at least in part, to the unwritten rules of any elected body – don’t rock the boat by opposing the powers that be.
However, in 2024 both Graves and Spanberger found themselves in a position where they no longer had anything to lose in terms of their personal standing within the backrooms of Congress. For her part, Spanberger, a former CIA Operations Officer elected to Congress in 2018, had opted not to seek reelection and instead launch a campaign for governor of Virginia.
Graves was also not on the ballot for reelection to Congress in 2024, having been on the losing side of an intraparty battle that cost him his seat during redistricting in Baton Rouge, LA. Not returning to Congress, Graves had nothing to lose in bucking the rightwing of his party in successfully pursuing the discharge petition that brought HR82 to the House floor for a vote on November 12 – just one week after Election Day.
Once the bill was on the floor, the floodgates of support opened and HR82 passed 327-75, well beyond the 2/3rds supermajority required under the provisions of the discharge petition.
Louisiana & House Leadership
The 2nd key difference maker was the election of Congressman Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House in October of 2023. Johnson, who hails from Shreveport, LA, had been a supporter of WEP/GPO repeal since entering Congress in 2017. Like Patrick Yoes, Johnson came to Washington, DC aware of the impact the unfair federal laws were having on his constituents in Louisiana. held a personal connection to the issues – his father being a retired firefighter.
In addition to Johnson, the Number 2 Republican in the House also represents Louisiana. And like Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was a long-time supporter of WEP/GPO repeal and a cosponsor of HR82.
Having the two top House leaders publicly in support of full repeal proved to be a major difference maker when the members of the House Freedom Caucus attempted to derail HR82 during an informal House session on Election Day. To their credit, Johnson and Scalise used the unique powers of their offices to keep the bill alive and allow HR82 to be brought to the House floor for a vote – the first time any bill related to WEP/GPO had ever made it out of committee since the laws’ creation in 1983.
2024 Election Results: It’s the Economy
The 2024 Election saw Donald Trump returned to the White House, Republicans regain control of the US Senate with a comfortable majority, and the House remain under Republican control, albeit with a razor thin majority.
While the reasons why Trump won and the Republican party gained a Senate majority will undoubtedly remain the subject of analysis and debate for years to come, one key factor that is generally agreed upon within both parties is that many voters cast their ballot based on economic concerns.
And when it comes to economic security, there was no bigger issue before Congress at the end of the 2024 session than HR82 and the repeal of WEP/GPO.
We have been told that when HR82 first arrived in the Senate, both Senators Warren and Markey rightfully argued in closed door meetings with Democratic leaders that WEP/GPO were textbook middle class economic issues. If Democrats hoped to win back the support of middleclass voters, WEP/GPO was a great way to start.
Meanwhile, Republicans were having the same conversation within their Senate caucus. It has been said that Vice President JD Vance, representing Ohio in the Senate, was a vocal advocate for the passage of HR82 on the same grounds – the bill was good for working class voters and first responders, who Republicans came to see as an important voting bloc.
When FOP, led by Nat. Pres. Patrick Yoes, secured President Trump’s public support for HR82 just days before the bill came to the Senate floor, it marked a significant turning point. It prevented the GOP’s Senate leadership, all of whom voted NO on HR82, from whipping the votes in their conference to kill the bill on the goal line. Senate Republicans went from being an insurmountable obstacle on full repeal, to being a key coalition partner in passing the bill minutes before the end of the formal Congressional session on December 21st.
Combined, all of these key factors led to the historic repeal of WEP/ GPO. The stars aligned and lightning struck.