Joe Biden on Sunday became the first president in more than two decades to sign a measure that expands Social Security benefits, a move that came as congressional Republicans and an Elon Musk-led advisory commission weigh possible cuts to the nation's most effective antipoverty program.
The Social Security Fairness Act rolls back the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), provisions that curbed Social Security benefits for those receiving retirement benefits from public service jobs.
The repeal of the two provisions means roughly 3 million teachers, firefighters, and other public-sector workers will see increases to their Social Security benefits. While the Social Security Fairness Act received significant bipartisan support, 71 Republicans in the House and 20 in the Senate voted against it, including new Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement Sunday that "repeal of the WEP-GPO is long overdue and would not have happened without the tenacity of Alliance members across the country who built a grassroots coalition and passed this law with strong bipartisan support."
"For years the government has taken away Social Security benefits from millions of retired federal, state, and local government employees who worked as teachers, police, firefighters, postal workers, and general employees," said Fiesta.
Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, wrote on social media that the new law "fixes two iniquitous policies that reduce the Social Security benefits of teachers, police officers, and firefighters."
"First Social Security expansion in decades," Lawson added. "Thanks President Biden."
"Public opinion polling indicates that majorities of Americans across party lines want to see benefits boosted, not cut."
Biden signed the measure just two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to establish a commission aimed at slashing government programs and regulations. Critics of the new panel, which is led by Musk and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, see it as a thinly veiled push to cut Social Security and other vital programs—a fear bolstered by recent comments from Republican lawmakers.
"Nothing is sacrosanct," Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told reporters after meeting with the two billionaires last month. "They're going to put everything on the table."
Ahead of a recent meeting on Capitol Hill, Rep. Greg Lopez (R-Colo.) predicted that "at the end of the day, there will be some cuts" to Social Security.
Musk himself has also taken aim at the New Deal program, using his massive platform on X—the social media site he owns—to boost a Republican senator's thread attacking the Social Security Act of 1935 as one of many "deceptive sales techniques the U.S. government has used on the American people."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), said in a statement Sunday that "President Biden's signing of the Social Security Fairness Act today truly is historic."
"We encourage the new 119th Congress to keep listening to the American people—and to take action on a bipartisan basis to strengthen Social Security without cutting benefits," said Richtman. "Public opinion polling indicates that majorities of Americans across party lines want to see benefits boosted, not cut. They favor bringing more revenue into the program by demanding the wealthy contribute their fair share in payroll taxes."
"This is the bipartisan solution that most Americans want," he continued, "even though some on Capitol Hill have proposed to slash benefits by raising the retirement age, means testing, cutting COLAs, or privatizing Social Security."
Applauding Biden for signing the measure and "for consistently fulfilling his promise to protect Americans' earned benefits all the way through the end of his presidency," Richtman added, "We can only hope that President-elect Trump will keep his promises to do the same."
