Author Archives for Herb Weiss

From Detroit to Pawtucket, and back again: The journey of a WWII footlocker

Published on January 13, 2025 in RINewsToday

“There and Back Again.” originating from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, is an expression that means a complete round trip to a place, including the journey back to where you started.

The journey of my late-father’s military olive-green footlocker began last June, after I was notified by a Detroit couple, Michael Shannon and his girlfriend Cetaura Bell, that it had been found cast away on a sidewalk for anyone to claim. The long-lost trunk that I never knew existed, had been stored in a vacant garage for over 60 years, ultimately ended up on my front steps, delivered almost 700 miles by FEDEX from Detroit to Pawtucket.  

Shannon, a 55-year-old retiree of Detroit’s wastewater facility, and Bell, a retired teacher, didn’t have to seek me out to return the footlocker to the family. They could have just kept the vintage military footlocker for use as a coffee table, or could have sold it at a flea market or on eBay.

But they offered to give me my father’s footlocker, as a gift, asking me for nothing in exchange. Shannon told me that he was just glad it could end up with the family of its rightful owner instead of being dumped in a landfill or another stranger’s home.

After the footlocker arrived, I closely examined a faded mailing label on its top.  By enlarging the label, filled out by my father, Lt. Frank M. Weiss, with Photoshop, my graphic designer was able to identify his  Detroit mailing address, 16841 Wildemere Avenue,  (which matched the address in his military records) on the label.  It was like winning a million-dollar lottery. Now I was convinced that this trunk was owned by my father.   

The footlocker, meantime, sat in my basement. Although it was empty when it arrived, I placed a folded American flag, given to my family at my father’s funeral, his military memorabilia, scrapbook of faded photos of his comrades in arms and assigned military bases from his long-ago days during WW II, and military documents for safe keeping.

What a story to share?  

In a crazy world where people don’t care about strangers, but an act of kindness returned a WWII veteran’s lost military footlocker to a family member.  My article, published here, and in the Blackstone Valley Call & Times, detailing Shannon and Bell’s kindness, was picked up by the Cranston Herald, Warwick Beacon, Senior Digest, and then later by Columnist Neal Rubin, of the Detroit Free Press, a Gannet publication, in both their digital and print editions. Then other Gannet papers, including the Providence Journal, the Cincinnati paper and the Indy Star, reprinted Rubin’s column. Perhaps the biggest connection, though, was made Military Reporter, Corey Dickstein, with Stars & Stripes – the US military’s independent news source with a circulation of over 1 million readers, reported on this story.

There and Back Again

After a talk at the Hope Historical Society (HHS) about my father’s footlocker’s return to Rhode Island from a street curb in Detroit (a most appropriate topic for a monthly meeting scheduled around Veterans Day), Fred Faria, a retired professor at Johnson & Wales and one of HHS’s founders, asked me how this footlocker would be protected after my passing away.  Being over age 70, this question induced me to act.

So, I reached out to the Washington, DC-based Smithsonian Institution’s’ National Museum of American History, offering to donate this military heirloom with a unique background story. 

“The footlocker indeed has a wonderful story but at present time this item is outside the scope of our current collecting plan. Might I recommend your state history museum or the National WW II Museum [in New Orleans] as worthy homes for this piece?” said Frank A. Blazich, Jr., PhD., Curator, Military History, Division of Military and Society, responding to my offer.   

Following up Blazich’s referral, this is a response off the New Orleans-based Museum. “We would be happy to have the contents of the footlocker for our collection; however, due to the number of footlockers that we already have and the size of these items, we are not able to accept the footlocker itself,” said Assistant Curator Brandon Daake, Assistant Curator.

 “If you are interested in keeping the footlocker and its contents together to tell one story, I would suggest reaching out to the Michigan’s Military Heritage Museum (MMHM), or another museum in the Detroit area,” suggested Daake, recognizing the fact that my father was a Detroit WW II veteran.

And that I did…

Small military museum takes possession of military footlocker 

After several phone calls, a conversation with Scott Gerych, MMHM’s Chairman, the deal was quickly sealed.  My father’s military footlocker, with its Detroit, Michigan ties, would return to Michigan to become a unique addition to their growing collection of military artifacts.  

In a message left on my Apple iPhone, Gerych, a 25-year veteran who served in the U.S. Army and a noted author, said: I am just dropping a line to say how neat it was to receive your father’s trunk with items from his service in WWII. What a joy! To have it go from Detroit to Rhode Island and now back to Michigan is certainly a great story to tell and to ultimately have it reunited with the items your dad saved from his wartime service is just awesome!”

“We are proud to have received it and will be getting it, all cataloged so we can eventually work it into an exhibit here at the MMHM. We love to see these stories saved and get them out on the public eye for all who are interested to see. Once again, thank you for thinking of us here at the museum,” said Gerych.

From its first home, at the Coe House Museum in Grass Lake, MMHM set up a one-room display showcasing uniforms and original artifacts of veterans highlighting their military service.   

With a growing reputation and growing number of supporters and donations of historical military items, MMHM found a larger home, a 3,300-sf building in Grass Lake. After its five-year lease ran out, the small military museum found new location near the site of Camp Blair, a former 11-acre Civil War Union camp in Jackson. The military camp was an assembly point for  new recruits and a discharging station for soldiers after the war’s end.

The collection of military artifacts grew and in 2021, the 3,600-former store-front in Jackson, Michigan, MMMH, opened its doors (now open half days, four days a week or by appointment.). This permanent location would allow MMHM to showcase thousands of military artifacts and large military vehicles,  including  three military jeeps, a Spanish-American War ambulance wagon,  a WWI Model T ambulance, a replica of a M3 Lee tank and even four cannons.  Specifically: a 1831 6lb cannon from the Mexican War and then used by the Confederates in the Civil War; a WWII German Pak 40, a standard antitank gun; and a WWI US M1905 gun.

Getting MMHM Off the Ground

The idea of starting a Michigan military museum started off with questions posed to a small group of friends who later helped to establish the MMHM.  That is, “what happens to all these individual collections when we are gone?”  Most of the original group were collectors of some type of militaria and all were interested in seeing the stories preserved.

That question was asked in 2013 and their idea would be answered by filing articles of incorporation with the state and later establishing a 501 C 3 nonprofit corporation in 2016.

As the group grew, meetings were held, partnerships created with the local historic society.   After Liam Collins, who was knowledgeable about Michigan history and archaeology and an original member of the group passed away, the group not only preserved the memory of Liam by sharing the stories of the state’s veterans.

According to the nonprofit military museum, its mission is to tell the stories of “Great Lake State” military veterans through interpretive displays of artifacts, pictures, and written and oral histories.  “Our state has currently two aviation museums and a museum dedicated to Medal of Honor Recipients and Astronauts,” says Gerych but nothing for the average service member who sacrificed and endured so much for our freedoms. We will be that institution,” he says.

The museum served as the headquarters for Michigan’s World War I Centennial. During 2019 and 2020, the museum participated in the 75th Anniversary of the end of  WW II.  

The nonprofit’s Board members, all extremely interested in Michigan’s military history brings different skills to the table, says Gerych, noting that one has a master’s  degree in history and museum studies, another is an archivist who has decades of experience, as well as a Distinguished Fellow in the Company of Military Historians. “No one is paid,” he adds, saying that all are actively involved because of their love for history.

Gerych estimates that 5,000 to 8,000 visitors come to see the museums exhibits and learn about the personal history of everyday veterans.  “Our records indicate that these visitors come from more than 30 countries and all 50 states,” he says.

From Detroit to Pawtucket and back again. Now my family’s military heirloom has truly come home to become part of the MMHM’s growing military artifact collection.

Watch a JTV television commercial advertising MMHM. Go to https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1079607069959492

For more information about the MMHM, 331 N. Wisner, Jackson, MI 49202, call  (517) 926-6696.  Or email mmhminfo2020@gmail.com.

 

Looking back at 2024, sharing some favorites

Published in RINewsToday on January 7, 2025

Like many national news organizations, RINewsToday, The Pawtucket Times and Woonsocket Call (now combined into one newspaper called the Blackstone Valley Call & Times), offers its readers an ‘age beat’ editorial commentary, covering a myriad of aging issues, Congress (including Social Security and Medicare) retirement, the long-term care continuum, consumer issues, spirituality, pop culture, health care and even economics. Throughout these years

I’ve covered these issues as they relate to older Rhode Islanders, also covering Smith Hill, when there are state policy debates on issues that will impact older Rhode Islanders.

As a Rhode Island ‘age beat’ journalist for over 45 years, I have penned over 1,000 stories covering issues of interest to our readers. These authored and coauthored pieces have appeared in national, state and trade publications.

For many of these editorial commentaries, I have consistently drawn on the invaluable research produced by the Washington, DC-based AARP. Their insightful reports, polls, and studies have provided a wealth of information that has deepened public understanding of the challenges and opportunities of aging. I’ve also drawn on the expertise of professionals in the Rhode Island aging network for their perspective and comments on these topics, giving the editorial a good, local slant, where possible.

In 2024, my commentaries have appeared weekly in daily news outlets, also in other media outlets including RINewsToday – that’s about 52 articles a year – over quite a few years now! I’ve written for digital news publications, Senior Digest, a monthly publication for those over age 50, the Narragansett Times, Kent County Daily, Cranston Herald, Warwick Beacon and the Johnston Sun who have picked up stories, and of course, my own blog.

As we celebrate the New Year and look forward to 2025, looking back, I have selected my top five favorite commentaries published in 2024. Specifically:

“Stoic Tips for the Class of 2024,” May 27, 2024.

Generally, thousands of commencement speeches occur annually at university and colleges in the U.S. The common themes of these speakers (traditionally 10 minutes in length, up to 2,500 words) that typically emerge in their speeches in 2024 were: resilience and overcoming challenges; embracing change and innovation; social responsibility and making a difference; the power of community and collaboration; and personal growth and lifelong learning; mental health and well-being and finally embracing diversity and inclusion.

Over the years, never being invited to give a commencement speech, I have traditionally penned my own. So, in 2024, advice was giving to graduating seniors, pulling from stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy that thrived in Ancient Greece and Rome. Advice came from: Epictetus, a former slave in Hierapolis (modern-day Turkey) around 50 CE; Seneca the Younger, who lived in the 1st century CE; Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor who ruled from 161 to 180 CE; and Stoic Greek philosopher, Heraclitus.

Graduating seniors were advised to remember the teachings of Stoic philosophy that would offer them a timeless roadmap for living a life of purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.

“Congressman Magaziner Takes Baton on Bring Back House Aging Committee,” March 4, 2024

Over 30 years ago, the US House Democratic leadership’s belt-tightening efforts to save $1.5 million resulted in the termination of the House Permanent Select Committee on Aging. This commentary announced Cong. Seth Magaziner (RI-2) legislative attempt to bring back the House Select Committee on Aging (HSCoA) when he picked up the baton from former Cong. David Cicilline who sought to bring it back during the 114th-117th Congresses.

The Commentary announced that Cong. Seth Magaziner’s introduction of H. Res. 1029, on Feb. 23, 2024, (cosponsored by Cong. Gabe Amo (RI-1) and 27 House Democratic lawmakers) to reestablish the HSCoA. It was referred to the House Committee on Rules for mark-up, (which never occurred) and the legislative resolution died at the conclusion of the 118th Congress.

According to the commentary, every day 12,000 Americans turn 60. By 2030, nearly 75 million people in the U.S. — or 20% of the country — will be age 65 or older. With the graying of our nation, the need for support and services provided under programs like Social Security, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid and the Older Americans Act increases.

Magaziner’s 213-word resolution would have authorized the HSCoA to study the use of all practicable means and methods of encouraging the development of public and private programs and policies which will assist seniors in taking a full part in national life and which will encourage the utilization of the knowledge, skills, special aptitudes, and abilities of seniors to contribute to a better quality of life for all Americans.

Finally, the House Resolution would also allow the HSCoA to develop policies that would encourage the coordination of both governmental and private programs designed to deal with problems of aging and to review any recommendations made by the President or by the White House Conference on aging in relation to programs or policies affecting seniors.

Hopefully, we will see Magaziner continue his attempt to bring back the HSCoA by reintroducing a new resolution during this new Congress. With his

“If You Want a Friend in Washington, Get a Furry Friend,” Aug. 5, 2024.

With an increasing number of adults reporting a decrease in the number of close friends, the old adage, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” might also be applicable outside the Beltway, even in the Ocean State. This companionship can also boost your physical and mental health. Your furry friends’ capacity for unconditional love enables them to share our lives’ highs and lows.

This commentary stressed the powerful bond of owning a pet and how the relationship offers mental and emotion support to their owners.

According to the findings of an American Psychiatric Association (APA) Healthy Minds Monthly poll released jointly with the American Veterinary Medical Association, among the many mental health benefits of pets, nearly two-thirds of pet owners say that their animals offer companionship (65%), are a true friend (65%) and provide unconditional love and support (64%), the survey finds. Eighty-four percent of pet owners say that their pets have a mostly positive impact on their mental health, similar to the findings of last year’s polling on the same topic. The poll was of 2,200 adults, done by Morning Consult.

Furthermore, the survey’s findings indicated 62 percent of the survey’s respondents say that pets provide a calming presence and also help reduce their stress and anxiety. Thirty-five percent note that their pet encourages them to be more physically active, too. The findings note that owning a pet adds structure to a respondent’s schedule and can even increase social connections with others (19%).

Yes, in Washington or outside the Beltway, if you want a friend, get a dog (or even a cat, bird or hamster). Pets can become a protective buffer against physical and mental disorders and life stressors.

“Someone’s Trash is a Military Family’s Treasure: Ours,” June 3, 2024.

This commentary, in the Blackstone Valley Call & Times, highlighted my efforts to retrieve a military footlocker that belonged to my father, after being notified that a Detroit couple, Michael Shannon and his girlfriend Cetaura Bell, found it cast away on a sidewalk for anyone to claim. The trunk had sat in a vacant garage for over 60 years (with the owner having no relations with the owner Lt. Frank M. Weiss). The couple went out of their way to try and finally successfully track me down thru an internet search.

My story was picked up by RINewsToday, and then in several local papers. The Detroit Free Press, a Gannet publication also did a story, in both their digital and print editions, and then other Gannet papers, including the Providence Journal, the Cincinnati paper and the Indy Star. Perhaps the biggest connection, though, was made with Stars & Stripes – the US military’s independent news source with a circulation of over 1 million readers.

“Shortage of direct care professionals a local and national concern,” April 22, 2024

Over 23 years ago, commentaries in the Pawtucket Times that I wrote reported on the crisis of a direct care staffing shortage and inadequate reimbursement being paid to nursing facilities to care for Rhode Island’s frail seniors. As we enter 2025, NOTHING has changed and these staffing and reimbursement issues still continue to exit.

The commentary took a look at a U.S. Special Committee on Aging hearing, chaired by Chairman Bob Casey, (D-PA), showcasing S. 4120, legislation that he introduced with U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). The Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act, introduced during the 118thCongress,would ensure that direct care professionals have a sustainable, lifelong career by providing substantial new funding to support these workers in every part of the long-term care industry, from nursing homes to home care, to assisted living facilities.

The Senate Aging Committee hearing revealed a number of statistical findings showing the need for Congress to address the nation’s severe ongoing direct care professional workforce shortage. It was noted that a recently released survey revealed 92% of nursing facility respondents and nearly 70% of assisted living facilities reported significant or severe workforce shortages.

The April 16th hearing entitled, “The Long-Term Care Workforce: Addressing Shortages and Improving the Profession,” examined the challenges currently facing long-term care workers who are often underpaid and overworked, leading to widespread worker shortages that threaten the availability of care for those who need it.

“It’s a crisis that stems largely from a lack of support for and investment in our care giving workforce,” warned Casey in his opening statement. “Between 50 to over 90 percent of long-term care settings and providers report significant staffing shortages, affecting their ability to provide services, accept new clients, or even to remain open,” he said, with witnesses providing personal testimony about this policy issue.

John E. Gage, MBA, NHA, President & CEO, of the Rhode Island Health Care Association (RIHCA), Maureen Maigret, policy advisory of the Senior Agenda of RI (SACRI), offered their views of the nation’s severe ongoing direct care professional workforce shortage citing Rhode Island specific examples.

In conclusion…

I extend my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of individuals I have interviewed over these 45 years. Their comments reflecting insights and observations about aging, health care, and medical issues, have profoundly enriched these commentaries.

To review all my 53 commentaries that appeared in 2024 (including the above cited), go to http://www.herbweiss.blog.

Historic Social Security Legislation Awaits President’s Signature

Published in RINewsToday on Dec. 30, 2024

After 40 years, a polarized Congress actually worked together on behalf of millions of Americans with public pensions to push through bipartisan legislation repealing two Social Security provisions that would benefit these individuals. Just past midnight in the early hours of Saturday, on Dec. 21, 2024, the U.S. Senate took up S. 597, a companion measure to H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, repealing unpopular WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) & GPO (Government Pension Offset) provisions titles in the Social Security program.   

The House had overwhelmingly passed H.R. 82, introduced last month introduced by Reps. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).

The Senate companion measure, authored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), overwhelmingly passed without amendment, by a Yea-Nay vote, 76-20 (with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) not voting) and now goes to President Biden to be signed into law. At press time, H.R. 82 has not been signed and the President has until Dec. 31 to sign or veto the bill.

Before the historic Senate vote, at a Dec. 16 meeting with Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and Executive Director Jim Pasco met with President-elect Donald J. Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago, President elect Donald Trump announced his support for the upper chambers’ passage of the “Social Security Fairness Act”— the “FOP’s top priority.”

Earlier this year, Collins and Brown had called on Senate leadership to immediately bring their legislation, which had 62 Senate co-sponsors—above the margin needed for passage—to the Senate floor for a vote. Collins held the first Senate hearing on this policy in 2003 as Chair of the Senate Government Affairs Committee. She, along with the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, first introduced the Social Security Fairness Act in 2005. 

Their bipartisan efforts pushed the legislative Social Security fix across the goal line, at the end of the second session of the 118th Congress.  For Brown, who lost his bid for re-election in November, passage of S. 597 was a bitter sweet moment for him as he leaves the U.S. Senate after serving as a U.S. senator from Ohio since 2007. 

In a Nutshell… 

According to Graves, WEP reduces the earned Social Security benefits of an individual who also receives a public pension from a job not covered by Social Security.  This financially impacts educators who do not earn Social Security in public schools but who work part-time or during the summer in jobs covered by Social Security, who have reduced benefits, even though they pay into the system just like others, Graves says.

Likewise, the GPO affects the spousal benefits of people who work as federal, state, or local government employees — including police officers, firefighters, and educators — if the job is not covered by Social Security. The GPO reduces by two-thirds the benefit received by surviving spouses who also collect a government pension, added Graves. 

According to the National Education Association (NEA), more than 2.8 million public sector employees in 26 states were impacted by GPO and WEP. Educators were affected in 15 of those states, because they pay into their state pension system, but not into Social Security, says NEA. 

The WEP currently impacts approximately 2 million Social Security beneficiaries, and the GPO impacts nearly 800,000 retirees.

Rally calls for passage of H.R. 82, gets Majority Senate Leader’s attention

Before Congress left Capitol Hill for recess, Graves and Spanberger, the primary sponsors of H.R. 82, had filed a discharge petition for their Social Security Fairness Act — which secured the required 218 signatures needed  to force a floor vote in the U.S. House. On Nov. 12, 2024,  a bipartisan majority voted 327 to 74, under suspension of rules to pass the legislation, sending it to the upper legislative chamber for consideration.

A week before the Senate vote on Dec. 21th, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association along with unions representing fire fighters, teachers, police officers and other public service workers rallied at 11:30 a.m., at the Upper Senate Park at the U.S. Capitol, in pouring rain outside the Capitol, calling for passage of H.R. 82. Joining the rally, Majority Senate leader Chuck Schumer.  “I’m here to tell you all today – we are going to call a vote on repealing WEP and GPO,” he said, calling the two Social Security titles “unfair and un-American.”  

 After the rally, Graves quickly issued this statement:  “The Senate Majority Leader has called for a vote on our bill H.R. 82 – provided he gets the necessary 60 votes to get it to the floor. More than 60 Senators support our Social Security Fairness Act. In the House we have led the effort for years to build the winning coalition, resulting in the most cosponsored bill – the most popular bill – in the Congress. We defied the odds and fought back sneak attacks to successfully complete a discharge petition that resulted in the first vote in history to repeal the WEP and GPO. The heavy lifting is done. The path to victory could not be clearer. A WEP-GPO repeal could be in the stockings of millions of public service retirees this Christmas. Pass H.R. 82 now,” he said.   

GOP lawmakers express concerns over financial impact

In response to a request from Chuck Grassley, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had provided the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee with its legislative analysis. The findings showed that the elimination of the WEP and GPO, as specified in H.R. 82, would permanently increase outlays for scheduled Social Security benefits—that is, the amounts that the program would pay if it continued to pay benefits as scheduled under current law, regardless of whether the program’s two trust funds had sufficient balances to cover those payments. That increase in Social Security benefits would drive the program’s spending even further above its revenues than it is already projected to be under current law. CBO estimates that the changes will cost nearly $ 200 billion over a 10-year period.

Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Grassley (R-IA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) and 16 other Republican Senators opposed passage, expressing strong concerns about the bill’s cost. This apprehension reinforced by the recently released CBO analysis.

Citing a CBO analysis of S. 82, the Republican Senators were concerned that the legislative proposal would reduce the Social Security trust fund by an additional $200 billion during the next decade, moving up the insolvency date by six months.

On the Senate floor, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said the bill’s title made it sound like “motherhood and apple pie,” quipping “who could be against Social Security fairness?” But he argued it wasn’t the right approach to address the problem.

However, 29 Republican Senators, including Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), were not concerned about the CBO analysis, voting for passage of the legislative proposal. 

Following the Senate vote, in a video on X, Kennedy stated: “Social Security is not free. People pay into it. The money we “spent” today in this bill – all we did is give it back to the people who earned it. Today was a good day. It was a good day for fairness, it was a good day for the Social Security system, and a good day for the people of Louisiana – even if you aren’t affected by these two unfair provisions of the Social Security Act, all Louisianians I know believe in fairness. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and I think we did the right thing here, and I’m pleased.” 

With the dust settling after the Senate vote, after 40 years of trying to fix a Social Security benefits issue impacting public sector workers, Democratic and Republican lawmakers put aside political differences and finally fixed the pressing policy issue.

Celebrating the historic passage 

Following the Senate vote for passage of H.R. 82, the National Fraternal Order of Police, International Association of Fire Fighters, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, National Education Association, and Peace Officers Research Association of California applauded this legislation being sent to the president’s desk to enhance the fairness of Social Security to public workers. 

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) commended the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, legislation he cosponsored to eliminate two policies. “Thousands of Rhode Islanders who receive government pensions but also contributed to Social Security through private-sector employment stand to benefit from the legislation,” he says.

“I’ve worked with my colleague Sherrod Brown for years to pass this legislation in order to ensure that millions of teachers, postal workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other dedicated civil servants get the benefits they have earned, says U.S. Senator Jack Reed. “I’m glad we were able to finally deliver this correction for millions of hardworking Americans and I’m committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security to ensure all Americans are able to retire with the dignity and financial security they have earned,” he said.

Max Richman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) called for passage of this bill because it because it removes an unfairness in the retirement system by allowing teachers, firefighters, and police officers (among others) and their families to collect Social Security benefits. 

Before the Senate vote, NCPSSM announced its opposition of any amendment that diluted this legislation or cut Social Security benefits in any way — including raising the retirement age.  The Washington, DC-based Social Security advocacy group circulated a letter to all 100 U.S. Senators before the vote on Dec. 21, opposing any efforts to raise the retirement age. 

According to Richtman, nearly 3 million public sector employees are on the verge of being able to receive the Social Security benefits they’ve earned — thanks to the United States Senate. 

“We supported this bill because it removes an unfairness in the system by finally allowing teachers, firefighters, and police officers (among others) and their families to collect full Social Security benefits. Many of our own members and supporters made it clear that they want the WEP & GPO repealed,” says Richtman.

“The Senate vote delivers us to the doorstep of a long-sought goal — to restore fairness to a system that has worked incredibly well for nearly 90 years to provide American workers with basic financial security,” says Richtman. 

According to a statement issued by National Education Association, Martha Karlovetz estimated that these discriminatory laws have cost her more than a hundred thousand dollars since 1995, when she retired from teaching at the Parkway School District outside St. Louis, Missouri. And if her husband had passed away before her, the laws would have meant that Karlovetz would have received only $14 per month in survivor benefits, even though her husband paid Social Security taxes throughout his 40-year career at McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing.

“The repeal of GPO and WEP is truly a historic win for all public employees and their families,” said Karlovetz. “These unfair provisions have taken a great toll. I have lost well over $110,000 in benefits earned in the 15 years I worked and paid into Social Security before becoming a teacher in Missouri, a GPO-WEP state. Now that we have helped achieve this victory, educators like me can breathe easier. For some, this is truly life-changing,” she says.

With the 119th Congress fast approaching, Congressional lawmakers must work together to fix a financially ailing Social Security Program.  Just like they did to pass bipartisan legislation to right a wrong affecting millions of retirees and public sector workers.  

To see Nov. 8 CBO correspondence to Sen. Grassley as to impact of S. 82 on the Social Security program, go to https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-11/60876-HR82.pdf

 To download a CRS report that details Social Security beneficiaries affected by both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), to https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45845