Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HCR101 Compare Versions

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Version 2 (New)

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1	1	By: Herrero (Senate Sponsor - Huffman) H.C.R. No. 101
2	2	(In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 2017;
3	3	May 12, 2017, read first time and referred to Committee on State
4	4	Affairs; May 18, 2017, reported favorably by the following vote:
5	5	Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 18, 2017, sent to printer.)
6	6	Click here to see the committee vote
7	7
8	8
9	9	HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
10	10	WHEREAS, Social Security is the foundation for retirement
11	11	income for tens of millions of American workers and their families;
12	12	nearly two-thirds of the older Americans who receive program
13	13	benefits rely on Social Security for 50 percent or more of their
14	14	total income, and one-third rely on it for 90 percent or more; among
15	15	beneficiaries aged 80 and older, 42 percent rely on Social Security
16	16	for nearly all of their income; and
17	17	WHEREAS, Two Social Security provisions, however, the
18	18	Government Pension Offset (GPO), enacted in 1977, and the Windfall
19	19	Elimination Provision (WEP), enacted in 1983, severely and unfairly
20	20	penalize recipients of public pensions; and
21	21	WHEREAS, The GPO effectively prohibits some government
22	22	retirees from collecting both their own pension and full Social
23	23	Security benefits as a surviving spouse; an estimated 9 out of 10
24	24	public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal
25	25	benefit, even though their spouses paid Social Security taxes for
26	26	many years; and
27	27	WHEREAS, The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit for
28	28	public employees who did not participate in Social Security while
29	29	working for the government, but who at some time in their careers
30	30	were in jobs where they paid Social Security taxes for the period
31	31	required to qualify for retirement benefits; the WEP can deprive a
32	32	retiree of more than $425 a month in Social Security benefits duly
33	33	earned by that individual; and
34	34	WHEREAS, Although these provisions were intended to curtail
35	35	the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid government
36	36	employees, in practice they have had and continue to have
37	37	devastating consequences for low-income employees who worked for
38	38	many years as public servants; more than two million government
39	39	employees and retirees are affected by either the GPO or the WEP or
40	40	both, and the repercussions are felt most acutely in Texas and 14
41	41	other states where a high proportion of public employees
42	42	participate in state or municipal retirement systems that do not
43	43	include Social Security; and
44	44	WHEREAS, These punitive and discriminatory provisions target
45	45	hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters,
46	46	and other public servants; although the vast majority of Texas
47	47	school employees participate in the state's teacher retirement
48	48	system and therefore are not required to and do not participate in
49	49	the Social Security system, many Texas teachers and other public
50	50	school employees nonetheless have earned Social Security benefits
51	51	on their own behalf through other employment, the WEP
52	52	notwithstanding, or would be entitled to spousal Social Security
53	53	benefits based on their spouses' lifetime earnings were it not for
54	54	the GPO penalty; these provisions cause veteran teachers to retire
55	55	prematurely and discourage qualified individuals from entering the
56	56	teaching profession at precisely the time that Texas and the nation
57	57	face a severe shortage of highly qualified educators; and
58	58	WHEREAS, The GPO and WEP as applied to public employees are
59	59	unreasonable and unjust and will cause tens of thousands of
60	60	government retirees to experience a diminished quality of life or
61	61	be forced to return to work to make up for the effects of these
62	62	provisions; now, therefore, be it
63	63	RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas
64	64	hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
65	65	repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination
66	66	Provision of the Social Security Act; and, be it further
67	67	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
68	68	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
69	69	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
70	70	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
71	71	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
72	72	this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record
73	73	as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.
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