Hundreds of thousands of Californians could get additional benefits from Social Security under legislation passed by the Senate last week.
Among those who could get help are teachers, firefighters, state, county, city and district employees. They're people who paid into the Social Security system when working in qualifying jobs, but because of federal laws had benefits cut because they also worked in government jobs.
The bill was passed by the House overwhelmingly last month. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, supported the bill.
The legislation would "ensure no American who has chipped into Social Security is wrongly denied their well-earned benefits," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as the Senate began considering the bill this week.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimated that about 290,000 California public employees, mostly retired workers, could be affected by the legislation.
CRS estimates that about 102,000 California spouses could also be helped by the legislation. A total of 6.3 Californians receive some sort of benefit from Social Security programs.
There's no estimate of the average benefit or when it could be available.
The repealed laws would be the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset.
The Windfall Elimination Provision reduces Social Security benefits of people who earned the benefits but also get a public pension from employment Social Security does not cover.
Someone who works as a teacher, for instance, but also is a counselor at a private camp in the summer could get a benefit cut. Under the bill, they would get the full Social Security benefit they've earned.
Under the Government Pension Offset, benefits given to surviving spouses receiving a government pension are also cut, even if their husband or wife paid into the system.
The changes are a "bipartisan victory for public sector employees and their families, who, like all Americans, deserve to collect the benefits they have earned," said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Commission to Protect Social Security and Medicare, an activist group.
Despite the overwhelming congressional votes, there is grave concern in some areas that the proposal will damage Social Security's already fragile economic outlook.
The program's trustees estimated earlier this year that at its current pace, prior to passage of the new benefits, the program was projected to become insolvent in 2035.
If no action is taken to help Social Security, beneficiaries would get only about 83% of their benefit.
Critics were alarmed at the new spending. "We are racing to our own fiscal demise," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a watchdog agency.
The new benefit, she said, "does nothing to address the windfalls they are intended to eliminate - instead, it just restores windfalls for folks who have other government pensions. What an incredulous set of events."
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., agreed. "A lot of people may think I am committing political suicide by doing this," he said as he opposed the bill. Tillis faces re-election in 2026.
But, he said before voting, "We are about to pass an unfunded $200 billion spending package for a trust fund that is likely to go insolvent over the next nine to 10 years, and we are going to pretend like somebody else has to fix it."