Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas House Bill HCR61 Compare Versions

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1	1	81R5403 CBE-D
2	2	By: Herrero, Gattis, Truitt, et al. H.C.R. No. 61
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5	5	HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, Social security is the foundation for retirement
7	7	income for millions of American workers and their families;
8	8	two-thirds of those older Americans who receive program benefits
9	9	rely on social security for 50 percent or more of their total
10	10	income, one-third rely on it for 90 percent or more, and for 21
11	11	percent it is their only source of income; and
12	12	WHEREAS, Two social security provisions, however, the
13	13	Government Pension Offset (GPO), enacted in 1977, and the Windfall
14	14	Elimination Provision (WEP), enacted in 1983, severely and unfairly
15	15	penalize recipients of public pensions; and
16	16	WHEREAS, The GPO effectively prohibits some government
17	17	retirees from collecting both their own pension and full social
18	18	security benefits as a surviving spouse; an estimated 9 out of 10
19	19	public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal
20	20	benefit, even though their deceased spouses paid social security
21	21	taxes for many years; and
22	22	WHEREAS, The WEP reduces the social security benefit for
23	23	public employees who did not participate in social security while
24	24	working for the government, but who at some time in their careers
25	25	were in jobs where they paid social security taxes for the period
26	26	required to qualify for retirement benefits; the WEP can deprive a
27	27	retiree of nearly $300 a month in social security benefits duly
28	28	earned by that individual; and
29	29	WHEREAS, Although these provisions were intended to curtail
30	30	the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid government
31	31	employees, in practice they have had and continue to have
32	32	devastating consequences for low-income employees who worked for
33	33	many years as public servants; more than one million government
34	34	employees and retirees are affected by either the GPO or the WEP or
35	35	both, and the repercussions are felt most acutely in Texas and 14
36	36	other states where a high proportion of public employees
37	37	participate in state or municipal retirement systems that do not
38	38	include social security; the cumulative loss of benefits as a
39	39	result of these penalties over the next 10 years has been projected
40	40	by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $60 billion; and
41	41	WHEREAS, These punitive and discriminatory provisions target
42	42	hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters,
43	43	and other public servants; although the vast majority of Texas
44	44	school employees participate in the state's teacher retirement
45	45	system and therefore are not required to and do not participate in
46	46	the social security system, many Texas teachers and other public
47	47	school employees nonetheless have earned social security benefits
48	48	on their own behalf through other employment, the WEP
49	49	notwithstanding, or would be entitled to spousal social security
50	50	benefits based on their spouses' lifetime earnings were it not for
51	51	the GPO penalty; these provisions cause veteran teachers to retire
52	52	prematurely and discourage qualified individuals from entering the
53	53	teaching profession at precisely the time that Texas and the nation
54	54	face a severe shortage of highly qualified educators; and
55	55	WHEREAS, The GPO and WEP as applied to public employees is
56	56	unreasonable and unjust and will cause tens of thousands of
57	57	government retirees to experience a diminished quality of life or
58	58	be forced to return to work to make up for the effects of these
59	59	provisions; now, therefore, be it
60	60	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
61	61	hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
62	62	repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination
63	63	Provision of the Social Security Act; and, be it further
64	64	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
65	65	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
66	66	the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
67	67	senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
68	68	Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
69	69	resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
70	70	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.