| 1 | 1 | | 88R5645 TBO-D |
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| 2 | 2 | | By: Herrero H.C.R. No. 20 |
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| 3 | 3 | | |
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| 4 | 4 | | |
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| 5 | 5 | | CONCURRENT RESOLUTION |
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| 6 | 6 | | WHEREAS, Social Security is the foundation for retirement for |
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| 7 | 7 | | tens of millions of American workers and their families, with many |
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| 8 | 8 | | reporting that they rely on the program as their sole source of |
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| 9 | 9 | | income; and |
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| 10 | 10 | | WHEREAS, Two Social Security provisions, however, the |
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| 11 | 11 | | Government Pension Offset (GPO), enacted in 1977, and the Windfall |
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| 12 | 12 | | Elimination Provision (WEP), enacted in 1983, severely and unfairly |
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| 13 | 13 | | penalize recipients of public pensions; and |
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| 14 | 14 | | WHEREAS, The GPO effectively prohibits some government |
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| 15 | 15 | | retirees from collecting both their own pension and full Social |
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| 16 | 16 | | Security benefits as a surviving spouse; nearly three-quarters of |
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| 17 | 17 | | beneficiaries affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal |
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| 18 | 18 | | benefit, even though their spouses paid Social Security taxes for |
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| 19 | 19 | | many years; and |
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| 20 | 20 | | WHEREAS, The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit for |
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| 21 | 21 | | public employees who did not participate in Social Security while |
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| 22 | 22 | | working for the government, but who at some time in their careers |
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| 23 | 23 | | were in jobs where they paid Social Security taxes for the period |
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| 24 | 24 | | required to qualify for retirement benefits; the WEP can deprive a |
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| 25 | 25 | | retiree of more than $500 a month in Social Security benefits duly |
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| 26 | 26 | | earned by that individual; and |
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| 27 | 27 | | WHEREAS, Although these provisions were intended to curtail |
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| 28 | 28 | | the payment of windfall benefits to highly paid government |
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| 29 | 29 | | employees, in practice they have had and continue to have |
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| 30 | 30 | | devastating consequences for low-income employees who worked for |
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| 31 | 31 | | many years as public servants; as of December 2018, more than two |
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| 32 | 32 | | million government employees and retirees had been affected by |
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| 33 | 33 | | either the GPO or the WEP or both, and the repercussions have been |
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| 34 | 34 | | felt most acutely in Texas and 14 other states where a high |
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| 35 | 35 | | proportion of public employees participate in state or municipal |
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| 36 | 36 | | retirement systems that do not include Social Security; and |
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| 37 | 37 | | WHEREAS, These punitive and discriminatory provisions target |
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| 38 | 38 | | hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, |
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| 39 | 39 | | and other public servants; although the vast majority of Texas |
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| 40 | 40 | | school employees participate in the state's teacher retirement |
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| 41 | 41 | | system, and therefore are not required to and do not participate in |
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| 42 | 42 | | the Social Security system, many Texas teachers and other public |
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| 43 | 43 | | school employees nonetheless have earned Social Security benefits |
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| 44 | 44 | | on their own behalf through other employment, the WEP |
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| 45 | 45 | | notwithstanding, or would be entitled to spousal Social Security |
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| 46 | 46 | | benefits based on their spouses' lifetime earnings were it not for |
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| 47 | 47 | | the GPO penalty; these provisions cause veteran teachers to retire |
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| 48 | 48 | | prematurely and discourage qualified individuals from entering the |
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| 49 | 49 | | teaching profession at precisely the time that Texas and the nation |
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| 50 | 50 | | face a severe shortage of highly qualified educators; and |
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| 51 | 51 | | WHEREAS, The GPO and WEP as applied to public employees are |
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| 52 | 52 | | unreasonable and unjust and will cause tens of thousands of |
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| 53 | 53 | | government retirees to experience a diminished quality of life or |
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| 54 | 54 | | be forced to return to work to make up for the effects of these |
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| 55 | 55 | | provisions; now, therefore, be it |
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| 56 | 56 | | RESOLVED, That the 88th Legislature of the State of Texas |
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| 57 | 57 | | hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to |
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| 58 | 58 | | repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination |
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| 59 | 59 | | Provision of the Social Security Act; and, be it further |
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| 60 | 60 | | RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
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| 61 | 61 | | copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
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| 62 | 62 | | the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
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| 63 | 63 | | Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the |
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| 64 | 64 | | members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
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| 65 | 65 | | this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record |
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| 66 | 66 | | as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |
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